Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the surgical outco
me of combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy in different types of prim
ary developmental glaucomas. Design: A retrospective review of all cas
es of primary developmental glaucomas that underwent primary combined
trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy between August 1990 and September 1995, w
ith a minimum follow-up of 6 months, was performed. Participants: One
hundred and eighty-two eyes of 120 patients were included in this stud
y; 122 (67%) eyes had congenital glaucoma; 22 (12.1%) eyes had infanti
le glaucoma; and 38 (20.9%) eyes had juvenile glaucoma. Intervention:
Primary combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy was the chosen intervent
ion. Main Outcome Measures: Preoperative and postoperative intraocular
pressures, visual acuities, success rate, corneal clarity and diamete
rs, bleb characteristics, time of surgical failure, and complications
were the main outcome measures. Results: Intraocular pressure (mean +/
- SD) reduced from a preoperative level of 26.5 +/- 8.3 mmHg; 30.3 +/-
9.9 mmHg; and 31.8 +/- 11.5 mmHg to 13.1 +/- 5.8 mmHg; 13.7 +/- 4.4 m
mHg; and 13.3 +/- 6.0 mmHg in the congenital, infantile, and juvenile
types of developmental glaucomas, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival
analysis showed that the success probability at 6 months was 94.4% +/-
2.3%; 90.9% +/- 6.1%; and 81.0% +/- 7.3% in the three groups, respect
ively. The success probability of patients with juvenile glaucoma was
significantly lower than it was for those with congenital glaucoma (P
= 0.0393). Of 182 eyes, 105 (57.7%) eyes had corneal edema at presenta
tion. Eighty-one (79%) of 105 eyes had complete clearance of corneal e
dema postoperatively (P < 0.0001), The follow-up period ranged from 6
months to 48 months (mean, 10.7 +/- 12.0 months). There were no sight-
threatening intraoperative and postoperative complications in any pati
ent. Conclusions: Primary combined trabeculotomy-trabeculectomy is saf
e, effective, and sufficiently predictable to be considered the first
choice of surgical treatment in primary congenital glaucoma with corne
al edema. Juvenile glaucoma has the worst prognosis, and infantile gla
ucoma has a better prognosis than does juvenile glaucoma.