Abstract
Purpose :
To evaluate the corneal endothelial cell loss after Baerveldt glaucoma implantation (BGI).
Methods :
We prospectively evaluated changes of the endothelial cell density (ECD) in cornea for 59 patients (59 eyes) who underwent BGI. Tubes were inserted into the anterior chamber (ac) in 45 eyes and pars plana (pp) in 14 eyes. The primary outcome measure was the change of corneal ECD after BGI. The secondary outcome measures included relationships between corneal ECD and the parameters of tube OCT images (the tube-cornea distance, and the tube-cornea angle), etc.
Results :
In the acBGI group, the corneal ECD at the tube insertion quadrant significantly decreased 8.6％ at 3 months (P＝0.049), 11.1％ at 6 months (P＝0.049) and 12.9％ at 12 months (P＝0.039). In the other corneal areas, the corneal ECD decreased significantly at 12 months only: center, 11.1％ loss (P＝0.021) and contralateral quadrant, 11.3％ loss (P＝0.019). In the ppBGI group, no significant loss of corneal ECD was found in any corneal areas at any follow-up visits after surgery. The tube-cornea angle was correlated negatively with the rate of corneal ECD loss at tube insertion quadrant; r＝－0.42 (P＝0.010).
Conclusions :
acBGI causes corneal endothelial cell loss. Corneal endothelial cell loss starts at the tube insertion quadrant. The narrower tube-corneal angle results in severer loss of the corneal endothelial cells.
This is an abstract that was submitted for the 2018 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Honolulu, Hawaii, April 29 - May 3, 2018.