POAG surgical outcomes affected by DM

According to recently published data, POAG patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) undergoing primary trabeculectomy with MMC do not achieve the same long-term IOP control compared to patients without DM.

Dr Simon K. Law, Glaucoma Division, Jules Stein Eye Institute, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, California, USA, studied 41 eyes of 29 patients with DM and 81 eyes of 64 patients without DM. Patients with DM without retinopathy were retrospectively compared with a control group without DM. Surgical success was defined as IOP ≤15 and >5 mmHg without complications or further glaucoma surgery.

At 60 months the Kaplan–Meier cumulative survival rates were 57.8±9.3% for the DM group and 68.6±5.3% for the control group. Mean postoperative IOP of the control group was statistically significantly lower than the DM group at the two, three, six and seven-year follow-up visits. The rates of postoperative complications and additional glaucoma surgeries were the same between the two groups.

POAG patients with DM without retinopathy undergoing primary trabeculectomy with MMC could have a lower long-term surgical survival rate, compared to patients without DM.

The abstract can be read in the latest issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.