In a retrospective study, 24 patients who had undergone simultaneous b
ilateral trabeculectomy over a 6-year period were reviewed. The durati
on of disease was at feast 2 years, indicating that surgery was not pe
rformed as a primary procedure. No patients suffered complications lea
ding to bilateral blindness, although 6 (25%) patients had reduced vis
ion in both eyes at the first postoperative visit, with 3 (13%) worse
than 6/36 binocularly. There was no evidence of an asymmetric response
in the fall in intraocular pressure following trabeculectomy, after a
mean follow-up of over 3 years. Compared with a matched group of pati
ents undergoing unilateral trabeculectomy, the simultaneous bilateral
group had a similar period of hospital stay. However, this was no shor
ter than that found in a group having staged bilateral surgery during
the same admission, over the same study period. When separate admissio
ns were required for bilateral drainage operations, though, there was
a significant increase in the total length of inpatient stay. No convi
ncing advantage was found for simultaneous bilateral trabeculectomy.