Micropulse Transscleral Cyclophotocoagulation: A Look at Long-Term Effectiveness and Outcomes.

PURPOSE: To investigate the long-term effectiveness of intraocular pressure (IOP) and medication reduction in patients who have undergone micropulse transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (mTS-CPC).

DESIGN

Retrospective chart review.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 73 eyes of 62 patients treated no more than 1 time with mTS-CPC in a practice in New York City with at least 1 year of follow-up.

METHODS

Treatment was 100 seconds of mTS-CPC with energy titrated on the basis of visual acuity. Paired t test and multivariable analysis were performed with SAS (SAS Institute Inc, Cary, NC).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Visual acuity, IOP, medication burden, phthisis, and development of macular edema were followed.

RESULTS

Average initial IOP was 25.5±9.4, and average number of initial medications was 3.1±1.1. At 1 year, average IOP was 13.8±7.0 (46% reduction) and average number of medications was 2.5±1.0 (19% reduction). A total of 11 of 15 patients (73.3%) initially taking an oral carbonic anhydrase inhibitor before CPC did not require the oral carbonic anhydrase inhibitor 1 year after treatment. Seventy-six percent of patients obtained at least 20% IOP reduction. Multivariate analysis found IOP reduction was associated with power used and preoperative IOP, whereas medication reduction was associated with initial medication burden. Notably, there was a 57% reduction in IOP at 2500 mW power and a 30% reduction at 2000 mW power. No patients developed macular edema or phthisis from the procedure. Some 18.8% of patients with 20/400 vision or better experienced persistent vision loss of ≥2 lines after the procedure, and 10% of patients with light perception to count finger vision progressed to no light perception (NLP) after the procedure. Of patients with 20/400 vision or better, 12.5% gained ≥2 lines of visual acuity on the Snellen chart at the postoperative year 1 visit. In addition, 15.4% of patients with count fingers to NLP vision improved at the postoperative year 1 visit after treatment. One of 6 patients (16.7%) with NLP gained vision at the postoperative year 1 visit.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides evidence that mTS-CPC is a clinically useful procedure associated with good long-term medication burden reduction and IOP reduction that follows a dose-response pattern related to power used.