Use of therapeutic ultrasound to restore failed trabeculectomies

We treated 20 recently postoperative eyes with nonfunctioning trabeculectomies at the site of the failed bleb with two to four ultrasound applications, each of five seconds duration, at an intensity level of 10 kW/cm2. Fifteen of the eyes demonstrated a long-term decrease in intraocular pressure to 21 mm Hg or below. The mean intraocular pressure of all patients fell from a preultrasound mean (+/- S.D.) of 32 +/- 8 mm Hg to 20 +/- 10 mm Hg at a mean time of 236 +/- 204 days postultrasound. Complications included an immediate postultrasound rise in pressure over 10 mm Hg in 13 eyes, and the immediate development of a cataract in one patient.