[Trabeculectomy--long term results]

Goal of this paper was to analyze retrospectively and partially also prospectively the results of trabeculectomies (TE) performed at the Department of Ophthalmology of the University Hospital in Hradec Králové (Königgrätz), Czech Republic, EU, during the 1990-2000 period using the database program GLAUCOM Access 97. The authors did statistical analysis of 538 trabeculectomies performed as the first surgery for lowering the intraocular pressure (IOP) on the followed eye without peroperative use of antimetabolites or cytostatics with follow up period 1-10 years. The baseline criteria for the evaluation were changes of the IOP, visual acuity, and pharmacological treatment after the operation. The average age at the time of the surgery was 61.28 +/- 14.58 years. Surgeries were performed by 11 surgeons. During the follow-up period the IOP lowering effect of the surgery was demonstrated by lowering the average IOP values from 28.42 +/- 8.98 mm Hg to 16.53 +/- 5.93 mm Hg. In the first half of the follow-up period a slight improvement of the visual acuity was noticed, in the second one the visual acuity decreased. Pre-operative average visual acuity was 0.59 +/- 0.34, and at the end of the follow-up period it was 0.59 +/- 0.33. The surgery in glaucoma patients effectively lowered the average number of prescribed antiglaucomatics after TE from 1.92 +/- 0.83 to 0.89 +/- 0.80 drugs. Our evaluations clearly showed trabeculectomy is even in the presence of existence non-perforating surgeries the basic and relatively easy-to-perform IOP lowering technique with broad variety of indications, and with relatively low number of complications.