Original ArticlesA clinical comparison of transscleral cyclophotocoagulation with neodymium: YAG and semiconductor diode lasers
Section snippets
Methods
In a prospective study, noncontact continuous wave Nd:YAG or semiconductor diode transscleral cyclophotocoagulation was randomly assigned to 95 eyes of 91 consecutive patients with medically uncontrolled glaucoma for which conventional surgical approaches had failed or were believed to have a poor likelihood of success. All patients signed an informed consent for this laser procedure after an explanation of the risks and benefits. Patients were followed for a mean of 10.4 months (10.42 ± 3.16
Results
Ninety-five eyes of 91 patients with refractory glaucoma were randomly assigned to receive Nd:YAG or diode cyclophotocoagulation. Patient demographics are shown in Table 1. There were 51 men and 44 women with a mean age of 65.7 years (range, 21 to 92 years). Fifty-eight patients were white and 37 were black. There were no statistically significant differences in gender, race, and age between the Nd:YAG and diode laser groups (P = .5350, .4278, and .7698, respectively). The most common types of
Discussion
Transscleral Nd:YAG cyclophotocoagulation has become the cyclodestructive procedure of choice for the management of refractory glaucoma. In spite of many advantages, the use of Nd:YAG cyclophotocoagulation has been limited because of postoperative complications, especially loss of visual acuity and excessive inflammation1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14 and possibly sympathetic ophthalmia.15, 16, 17
The semiconductor diode laser has certain technological and potential biological advantages over Nd:YAG
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