Effect of mitomycin C and 5-fluorouracil on wound healing in patients undergoing glaucoma surgery: A meta-analysis

Increased intraocular pressure (IOP) is a risk factor for glaucoma. One treatment option is trabeculectomy. Antimetabolic agents are used in the operation to decrease the post-operative scarring of the wound. The two most common medicines are Mitomycin C (MMC) and 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU). The aim of this research is to assess the effect of MMC on post-operation wound healing in comparison with 5-FU in addition to trabeculectomy. Well, we went through four common databases. Our language was limited to English during the study. The last time we looked at the e-databases was August 2023. Case control studies were performed where MMC resulted in better wound healing than 5-FU. Researchers selected a total of 1023 trials and eventually selected six trials for data analysis. Four hundred and ninety one cases of glaucoma were treated with trabeculectomy. Among them, 246 were given MMC and 245 were given 5-FU during operation. Six trials showed that there was no statistical difference between MMC and 5-FU in the incidence of post-operative wound leak in glaucoma patients who received trabeculectomy (OR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.63-2.30 p = 0.57); Five trials demonstrated that MMC was associated with a reduced risk of post-operative corneal damage compared to 5-FU injection (OR, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.06-0.56 p = 0.003); In both trials, the incidence of post-operative bleeding was not significantly different from that of 5-FU injected in the MMC group (OR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0.05-2.16 p = 0.25). Our results indicate that MMC is superior to 5-FU in the reduction of post-operative corneal injury. Additional comparisons between MMC and 5-FU are required in order to increase the reliability and effectiveness of these findings.