Surgical results of trabeculotomy ab externo for developmental glaucoma.

Objective: To elucidate long-term surgical outcome of trabeculotomy ab externo in the treatment of developmental glaucoma.
Patients: Included in this retrospective study are 116 eyes of 71 patients with developmental glaucoma. We classified patients into three groups based on their age: congenital (33 eyes), existing before age 2 months; infantile (31 eyes), occurring from ages 2 months to 2 years; and juvenile (52 eyes), age 2 years or older.
Results: A life-table analysis showed that the total success probabilities at 5 and 10 years with one or more trabeculotomy ab externo operations were, respectively, 92.5% +/- 2.7% and 76.5% +/- 6.2%. The success probability of patients with congenital glaucoma (60.3% +/- 15.9%) was significantly lower than it was for those with infantile (96.3% +/- 3.6%) or juvenile (76.4% +/- 7.5%) glaucoma (P < .01 for both).
Conclusions: Surgical results of trabeculotomy ab externo remain effective for a long time. Congenital glaucoma has the worst prognosis, and infantile glaucoma has a better prognosis than does juvenile glaucoma.