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Building a safer trabeculectomy

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
S Lin
Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco, 10 Koret Way, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA; lins@vision.ucsf.edu

Keywords: trabeculectomy; glaucoma

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In this issue of the BJO (p 44), Stalmans et al describe their clinical results of a new technique for trabeculectomy, originally described by Wells et al.¹ In this modification of the traditional trabeculectomy procedure, there are three main alterations: (1) adjustable/removable sutures are placed along each lateral side of the trabeculectomy flap for intraoperative and postoperative adjustment; (2) an anterior chamber maintainer is placed to titrate the leakage from the trabeculectomy and to wash out inflammatory debris from the anterior chamber; and (3) a standardised excision is created using the Khaw punch instrument of 0.5 mm. The overall purported advantage of these changes is reduced complications related to early postoperative overfiltration.

The modern Cairns/Watson technique for trabeculectomy^2,3 was developed, in part, to avoid the overfiltration associated with full thickness sclerostomies. Clinical studies have demonstrated lower rates of hypotony and flat chamber with the guarded filtration approach.⁴ . . . [Full text of this article]

Relevant Article

Safe trabeculectomy technique: long term outcome

I Stalmans, A Gillis, A-S Lafaut, and T Zeyen
Br. J. Ophthalmol. 2006 90: 44-47. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]