Efficacy and safety of pop-titrated versus fixed-energy trans-scleral diode laser cyclophotocoagulation for refractory glaucoma Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2018, Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature.Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of pop-titrated versus fixed-energy diode laser trans-scleral cyclophotocoagulation (DLTSC) for refractory glaucoma. Methods: This is a prospective, interventional, longitudinal, and comparative case¿control study. Patients with refractory glaucoma treated with pop-titrated DLTSC were compared to a fixed-energy DLTSC control group. Variables analyzed included: age, gender, diagnosis, pre- and post-treatment intraocular pressure (IOP). Success rate, anti-glaucoma medications reduction, and complications were analyzed at day 90 post-treatment. Primary success criterion consisted of eyes with a postoperative IOP ¿ 22 mmHg or a 30% reduction of pre-treatment IOP and managed with topical anti-glaucoma medications only. Results: A total of 68 eyes from 67 patients were included for analysis: 30 in the pop-titrated group and 38 in the fixed-energy group. Therapeutic success was achieved in 56¿72% of the pop-titrated group versus 47¿52% in the fixed-energy group considering the 3 different criteria analyzed (p = 0.23¿0.4). There was a 22% (from 4.1 to 3.2 drugs) reduction of anti-glaucoma medications in the pop-titrated group, compared to 32% (from 3.5 to 2.4 drugs) in the fixed-energy group (p = 0.42). Five eyes (13.1%) developed hypotony, all of which belonged to the fixed-energy group (p = 0.048). Conclusions: Pop-titrated DLTSC represents an effective and safe option for the management of refractory glaucoma. We found no statistically significant difference in success rates among both groups. However, there was a significantly higher risk of hypotony in eyes treated with the fixed-energy protocol.

publication date

  • March 15, 2019