False Passage: A Complication of 360° Suture Trabeculotomy

Abstract

F c s t he use of suture material to perform trabeculotomy as first described by Smith in 1960. The technique as subsequently refined by Beck and Lynch in 1995 hen they presented a series of 26 eyes undergoing 60° trabeculotomy using a single length of 6-O olypropylene suture. In this new modification, a suure fragment is passed through the entire length of chlemm’s canal via a partial thickness scleral flap. nce passed, the 2 free ends of the suture are pulled, pening all 360° of the angle as the suture tears into he anterior chamber. The potential advantage of this echnique is the ability to open the entire angle hrough only one incision during a single surgical rocedure. By contrast, conventional trabeculotomy ith metal trabeculotomes is only able to open onehird to one-half of the angle circumference at a single ession and would require at least 2 separate incisions o complete for 360° angle surgery. This report decribes a potential complication of suture trabecuotomy; false passage into the subscleral (suprachoroial) space.