Results of peripheral iridectomy with scleral cautery in congenital and juvenile glaucoma.

Abstract

I. Introduction This paper presents results obtained from iridectomy with scleral cautery, largely as a reoperative procedure, on 57 eyes (40 patients) with infantile glaucoma (Table 1) and on 15 eyes (12 patients) with juvenile glaucoma (Table 2). It was used as a reoperative procedure in all except 2 of the eyes with infantile glaucoma and 3 of the eyes with juvenile glaucoma. Although goniotomy or goniopuncture, alone or combined, is the operation of choice in infantile glaucoma, failure to control intraocular pressure occurs, including reoperations, in approximately 20% of eyes. In my experience, goniotomy and goniopuncture have little chance of success if the intraocular pressure is not controlled after the first 2 or 3 attempts. Since the outlook is no better with conventional operations, such as trephination, iridencleisis, and cyclodialysis, I began to use iridectomy with scleral cautery for reoperating on such eyes in September, 1956. I have also