Relationship between central corneal thickness and hypotony-related complications after glaucoma surgery

To examine the hypothesis that patients with increased central corneal thickness may have an overestimation of Goldmann applanation tension and a predisposition to hypotony-related complications.

A case-control analysis of patients with an intraocular pressure of 7 mm Hg or less on two consecutive postoperative visits following glaucoma filtration or drainage implant surgery was performed. Forward stepwise multiple logistic regression was used to determine the model that best predicted hypotony-related complications defined as choroidal effusion or hypotony maculopathy.

Forty-three eyes (17 with hypotony-related complications and 26 controls) of 43 patients were enrolled. Eyes with pseudophakia (P = .006) and lower postoperative intraocular pressure (P = .013) were significantly more likely to develop hypotony-related complications. Mean central corneal thickness was similar in eyes with hypotony-related complications (519 +/- 32 microm) and controls (525 +/- 37 microm) and was not a significant predictor of hypotony-related complications in the multivariate model (P = .90).

Increased central corneal thickness does not represent a risk factor for hypotony-related complications following glaucoma surgery.