Comparison of the efficacy and safety of ultrasonic cycloplasty vs valve implantation and anti-VEGF for the treatment of fundus disease-related neovascular glaucoma

·AIM: To compare the clinical efficacy and safety of ultrasonic cycloplasty(UCP) vs Ahmed glaucoma drainage valve implantation(ADV) in addition to intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor(VEGF) for treatment of fundus disease-related neovascular glaucoma(NVG).·METHODS: A total of 43 patients(45 eyes) with NVG secondary to fundus diseases underwent anti-VEGF combined with UCP or ADV from August 2020 to March 2022 were enrolled in this retrospective cohort study. Of them, 14 patients(15 eyes) were treated with both UCP and anti-VEGF as the UCP group and 29 patients(30 eyes) treated with both ADV and anti-VEGF as the ADV group. The success of the treatment was defined as intraocular pressure(IOP) between 11-20 mm Hg with or without using IOP-lowering drugs. IOP measurement, IOP lowering drugs at baseline and follow-ups period and complications were recorded.·RESULTS: The average age was 63.03±9.95 and 52.27±12.89y in ADV and UCP groups, respectively(P=1.947). The fundus pathology included proliferative diabetic retinopathy in 42 eyes and retinal vein occlusion in 3 eyes. All eyes in both groups achieved successful treatment at 3mo. While the success rate was 90.0%(27/30) in the ADV group and 86.7%(13/15) in the UCP group at the last follow-up of 6mo(P>0.05). IOP was significantly lower with reduction of drug use than the baseline in both groups(both P<0.05). And the ADV group needed fewer anti-glaucoma drops than the UCP group from 1d to 3mo. The comfort scores of patients in the ADV group were significantly lower than those in the UCP group in the first week after the operation(P<0.05).·CONCLUSION: UCP is an alternative to the ADV with the same efficacy but non-invasive for the treatment of NVG.

Efficacy and safety of intravitreal ranibizumab with panretinal photocoagulation followed by trabeculectomy compared with Ahmed glaucoma valve implantation in neovascular glaucoma

AIM：To evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravitreal ranibizumab（IVR）with panretinal photocoagulation（PRP）followed by trabeculectomy compared with Ahmed glaucoma valve（AGV）implantation in neovascular glaucoma（NVG）.METHODS：This was a retrospective comparative study.We reviewed the cases of a total of 45 eyes from 45 NVG patients among which 23 eyes underwent AGV implantation and the other 22 underwent trabeculectomy. The causes of neovascular glaucoma included：diabetic retinopathy（25 eyes）,and retinal vein occlusion（20 eyes）.All patients received preoperative IVR combined with postoperative PRP. The mean best-corrected visual acuities（BCVA）were converted to the logarithms of the minimum angle of resolution（log MAR）for the statisitical analyses.Intraocular pressure（IOP）,the log MAR BCVA and surgical complications were evaluated before and after surgery.The follow-up period was 12 mo.RESULTS：A total of 39 cases showed complete regression of iris neovascularization at 7d after injection,and 6 cases showed a small amount of residual iris neovascularization. The success rates were 81.8% and 82.6% at 12 mo after trabeculectomy and AGV implantation,respectively. In the trabeculectomy group,the log MAR BCVA improved at the last follow-up in 14 eyes,remained stable in 6 eyes and decreased in 2 eyes. In 4 cases,slight hyphemas developed after trabeculectomy. A shallow anterior chamber developed in 2 cases and 2 vitreous hemorrhages. In the AGV group,the log MAR BCVA improved in 14 eyes,remained stable in 5 eyes and decreased in 4 eyes. Slight hyphemas developed in 3 cases,and a shallow anterior chamber in 3 cases. The mean postoperative IOP was significantly lower in both groups after surgery（F=545.468,P〈0.05）,and the mean postoperative log MAR BCVA was also significantly improved（F=10.964,P〈0.05）with no significant difference between two groups.CONCLUSION：It is safe and effective to treat NVG with this combined procedure,and we found similar results after IVR＋AGV implantation＋PRP and IVR＋trabeculectomy＋PRP in eyes with NVG.