Twenty-Years of Experience in Childhood Glaucoma Surgery

To quantify the results of childhood glaucoma treatment over time in a cohort of children with different types of childhood glaucoma. A retrospective cohort study of consecutive cases involving children with primary congenital glaucoma, primary juvenile, and secondary juvenile glaucoma at the Childhood Glaucoma Center, University Medical Center Mainz, Germany from 1995 to 2015 was conducted. The main outcome measure was the long-term development of intraocular pressure. Further parameters such as surgical success, refraction, corneal diameter, axial length, and surgical procedure in children with different types of childhood glaucoma were evaluated. Surgical success was defined as IOP < 21 mmHg in eyes without a need for further intervention for pressure reduction. A total of 93 glaucomatous eyes of 61 childhood glaucoma patients with a mean age of 3.7 ± 5.1 years were included. The overall mean intraocular pressure at first visit was 32.8 ± 10.2 mmHg and decreased to 15.5 ± 7.3 mmHg at the last visit. In the median follow-up time of 78.2 months, 271 surgical interventions were performed (130 of these were cyclophotocoagulations). Many (61.9%) of the eyes that underwent surgery achieved complete surgical success without additional medication. Qualified surgical success (with or without additional medication) was reached by 84.5% of the eyes.