Evolution of patients operated by trabeculectomy in the Ophthalmology Center of Santiago de Cuba

Abstract

Introduction: Glaucoma is one of the nosologic entities with more prevalence and constitutes one of the main causes of blindness in the developed world. The intraocular pressure is the only risk factor that can be controlled and is associated with the presence and progression of the disease. Objective: To describe the evolution of patients operated by means of trabeculectomy technique. Methods: An observational descriptive, longitudinal and prospective study of 128 patients with simple chronic glaucoma operated by means of trabeculectomy technique was carried out in the Ophthalmology Center of Santiago de Cuba, from January, 2017 to June, 2019. For this purpose, the following variables were analyzed: age, sex, skin color, preoperative and postoperative visual acuteness, intraocular pressure before and after the operation, as well as postoperative complications. Results: There was a prevalence of male sex (69.5%), 60-69 age group (44.5%) and black skin color (53.1%). Hypertension was the most frequent associated disease and the ocular hypertension was the fundamental risk factor; meanwhile, the main postoperative complication was the hyphema. Conclusions: With trabeculectomy was possible to control ocular tension in most of the patients and the complications that were presented in some of them did not interfere in their clinical course. This technique made it possible to reduce the irreversible damage caused by ocular hypertension of the optic nerve and, consequently, to prevent blindness.

Keywords

• glaucoma
• hipema
• trabeculectomía
• presión intraocular.