Goniotomy for initial and re-surgery for childhood glaucoma in Northern India

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to describe the effectiveness of goniotomy for childhood glaucoma in Indian eyes. METHODS: Consecutive patients with pediatric glaucoma who underwent goniotomy between July 2017 and June 2020, in a single center in Northwest India were prospectively analyzed. Goniotomy was done as a primary procedure or a re-do surgery of the untreated angle in failed filtering surgery. Success was defined as intraocular pressure (IOP) ≦18 mm Hg with or without 2 topical medications. RESULTS: A total of 172 eyes of 126 children underwent goniotomy during this period (37.9% of all pediatric glaucoma surgeries). Goniotomy comprised 132 of 211 (62.5%) primary pediatric glaucoma surgeries and 40 of 243 (16.5%) re-do surgeries. 145, 112, and 54 eyes had a six months, 1-year and 2-year follow-up, respectively. At 1 year, success rates in Primary Congenital Glaucoma (PCG) were 79.7% for primary surgery and 68.4% for re-do surgery. For non-PCG eyes, the success rate was 62% at 1 year. Among PCG subgroups, infantile and newborn glaucoma had 87.5% and 57.1% success rates, respectively. On logistic regression analysis, lower baseline IOP and lesser axial length at presentation were significantly predictive of successful outcomes (P = 0.03 and P = 0.02, respectively). At 1 year, in the primary surgery group, 50% had good vision (better than logMAR 0.5), 28.9% had moderate (better than LOGMAR 1.0) and 20% had severe visual impairment. There were no significant intraoperative or post-operative complications. CONCLUSION: Goniotomy appears to be an effective surgery for childhood glaucoma in Indian eyes. Being minimally invasive, it obviates the need for conjunctival and scleral dissection and antifibrotic agents.