title: Incidence of complications following 5-fluorouracil with trabeculectomies.
abstract: To investigate the incidence of complications reportedly caused by the use of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in glaucoma filtering surgery, we performed trabeculectomy with 5-FU on 57 eyes of 56 patients with advanced glaucoma. The mean preoperative intraocular pressure was 34.8 mm Hg. The most frequent complication encountered was superficial punctate keratopathy (26%), followed by shallowing of the anterior chamber (12%), choroidal detachment (9%), and flap retraction (7%). We, however, did not encounter any cases of confluent corneal epithelial defect, subepithelial scarring, or striate melanokeratosis which are usually described with the use of 5-FU. With a mean follow-up of 7.1 months, an intraocular pressure less than 16 mm Hg without hypotensive therapy were achieved in 73.7% of cases, and less than 21 mm Hg without hypotensive therapy in 86%. Considering the low incidence of complications and the high success rate, we recommend the use of 5-FU in routine glaucoma filtering surgery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Christian Medical College, Vellore.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jacob
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Raju
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Gieser
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sen
mesh_terms: D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003316:Corneal Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005901:Glaucoma / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology; D014130:Trabeculectomy / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D005472:Fluorouracil