Preoperative Topical Steroid Use and Trabeculectomy Outcomes

Précis: Preoperative topical steroid use was associated with greater surgical success and thicker, less reflective bleb walls on anterior segment optical coherence tomography 1 year after trabeculectomy.

Purpose

To assess the association of preoperative topical steroid administration with surgical outcomes and filtering bleb morphology 1 year after trabeculectomy. Patients and Methods: This study included 304 eyes of 272 patients who underwent primary trabeculectomy with mitomycin C. Eyes were classified into steroid and non-steroid groups based on the administration of topical steroids for 7 days preoperatively. The primary outcome was surgical success at 1 year, defined by either criterion A (intraocular pressure [IOP] ≤15 mmHg and a ≥20% reduction from preoperative IOP) or criterion B (IOP ≤12 mmHg and a ≥30% reduction from preoperative IOP), achieved without glaucoma medication or additional glaucoma surgery. Bleb morphology was evaluated using anterior segment optical coherence tomography. Multivariable Cox regression was used to adjust for potential confounders.