[Combined argon and neodymium: yttrium aluminum garnet laser peripheral iridectomy: a new approach in clinical...

Laser peripheral iridectomy was performed on 200 eyes (151 cases) with primary acute or chronic angle-closure glaucoma and partly with mixed glaucoma. Following argon laser creating an iridectomy in 2/3-3/4 iris thickness, neodymium: yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd: YAG) laser shot was required to complete a patent iridectomy. This kind of procedure is simple and tends to be more preferable to Asian people with heavily pigmented and thick irides for which a perforation is difficult to be performed. The successful rate of performing a patent iris perforation was 100.0% and 95.0% of them were completed by once of shot. The intraoperative and postoperative complications of this combined procedure appeared to be significantly less than those of either one of them. 161 eyes were followed for more than 2 years. The objective criteria demonstrate that the long-term therapeutic effects of this combined technique are very good. It is recommended to use the procedure extensively in the out-patient clinics.