Postoperative outcome of three different procedures for childhood glaucoma

PURPOSE: To investigate the long-term postoperative outcome of three surgical procedures for childhood glaucoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this retrospective study, the patients were divided into a goniotomy group, a trabeculotomy group, and a filtering surgery group, based on the initial surgical procedure. Failure was defined as an IOP ≥21 mmHg with medication at two consecutive visits. A Kaplan–Meier analysis was applied to calculate the probability of success. Additional metrics included IOP, number of additional operations, eye drop scores, and visual acuity. RESULTS: We studied 40 eyes of 25 patients, 21 eyes of 15 patients, and 12 eyes of 7 patients in the goniotomy, trabeculotomy, and filtering surgery groups, respectively. The 10- and 20-year probability of success was 65.2% and 65.2%, 42.2% and NA (no data for 20 years), and 91.7% and 80.2% for the goniotomy, trabeculotomy, and filtering surgery groups, respectively. CONCLUSION: All three procedures maintained an IOP of less than 21 mmHg for up to 10 years in 65.2%, 42.2%, and 91.7% of childhood glaucoma cases.