One-year results of double site versus single site rigid probe viscotrabeculotomy in primary congenital glaucoma.

Study Purpose: to compare single- site viscotrabeculotomy in one eye and double-site rigid probe viscotrabeculotomy in the other eye of the same patient with Primary congenital glaucoma to evaluate the effect of the extent of angle treatment on success rate in the study's locality.

Patients And Methods: This prospective randomized study included 70 eyes of 35 children diagnosed with bilateral PCG who attended Mansoura Ophthalmic Center from June 2021 to July 2023. For each patient, one eye underwent single-site rigid probe viscotrabeculotomy (Group S: 35 eyes) and the fellow eye underwent double- site rigid probe viscotrabeculotomy (Group D: 35 eyes). At one-year follow up, complete success was defined as IOP >5 mmHg and ≤16 mmHg without any further IOP-lowering medications and qualified success when IOP ≤16 mmHg with using IOP-lowering medications. Failure was defined as IOP more than 16 mmHg despite the use of IOP-lowering medications, the need for other glaucoma surgery to control IOP or hypotony.

Results: Single-site rigid probe viscotrabeculotomy showed a one-year complete success rate of 88.57% and for double-site viscotrabeculotomy was 91.43% but the difference was not statistically significant (p-value 0.9). There were no major complications in both groups, hyphema was the most common complication and was self-limited.

Conclusion: Single-site viscotrabeculotomy shows comparable results to double-site viscotrabeculotomy in PCG preserving more than half of the angle in the former for a second possible angle surgery in recurrent cases.