INTRAOCULAR-PRESSURE AFTER FILTERING SURG ERY OR COMBINED FILTERING SURGERY AND CATARACT-EXTRACTION

Background The prevalence of glaucoma is 2% and of cataract 25% in pat ients at the age of 65 to 75 years. To this moment the discussion is o pen about the optimal therapy when there is simultaneous cataract and glaucoma. We evaluated and compared the intraocular pressure and the v isual acuity in patients with filtering-surgery and combined surgery ( = filtering surgery plus simultaneous cataract surgery). Method In a r etrospective study 56 eyes of 45 patients operated by filtering surger y and 46 eyes of 40 patients operated by combined surgery were examine d. Results Patients with combined surgery showed significant higher fr equency of fibrin in the anterior chamber compared to patients with fi ltering-surgery. After 12 months there was no significant difference i n intraocular pressure between both groups. The IOP of the last examin ation was 16 +/- 4 mm Hg in eyes with combined surgery and 14 +/- 4 mm Hg in eyes with filtering surgery. Eyes with combined surgery showed an increase of visual acuity from 0.2 +/- 0.2 to 0.4 +/- 0.3, eyes wit h filtering surgery a decrease of visual acuity from 0.7 +/- 0.3 to 0. 6 +/- 0.3. Conclusion Combined surgery is perioperatively associated w ith a higher frequency of complications, but showed 12 months postoper atively equal values of regulated intraocular pressure.