Changes in intra-ocular pressure, ocular pulse amplitude and choroidal thickness after trabeculectomy.

Clinical Relevance: Glaucoma is one of the most common causes of blindness. Although high intra-ocular pressure (IOP) is the most important risk factor, ocular blood flow also has an effect on prognosis.

Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the IOP, ocular pulse amplitude (OPA) and choroidal thickness (CT) changes after trabeculectomy and to determine whether trabeculectomy has an effect on ocular blood flow.

Methods: This retrospective, comparative case series was conducted with 33 eyes of 33 patients who underwent trabeculectomy due to uncontrolled glaucoma. The fellow eyes of 20 patients who were followed up with medical therapy were included as a control group. IOP and OPA were evaluated using a dynamic contour tonometer. Subfoveal choroidal thickness (SFCT) was obtained with enhanced depth imaging (EDI) mode of Spectralis-OCT.

Results: The mean IOP was 21.6 ± 6.3 mmHg at baseline and 13.8 ± 0.9 mmHg after trabeculectomy ( ˂ 0.001), and the mean OPA was 4.1 ± 1.5 at baseline and 2.6 ± 1.6 mmHg after trabeculectomy ( ˂ 0.001). The mean SFCT was 292.2 ± 63.2 µm at baseline and 303.8 ± 70.4 µm after trabeculectomy ( = 0.024). The change in OPA was strongly positively correlated with the change in IOP ( = 0.597, ˂ 0.001) and SFCT change was positively correlated with OPA change ( = 0.34, = 0.05). There was no difference between the two groups in terms of IOP, OPA and SFCT values measured after trabeculectomy (respectively, = 0.264, = 0.627 and = 0.949).

Conclusion: The large IOP decrease following trabeculectomy causes a decrease in OPA and choroidal thickening. On the other hand, trabeculectomy has no effect on OPA change.