Sodium hyaluronate (Healon) in glaucoma filtering procedures.

Healon (sodium hyaluronate) has been used in a prospective study designed to investigate its possible usefulness in promoting effective bleb formation and preventing cleft closure in trabeculectomy for glaucoma. One hundred fourteen patients with open-angle glaucoma were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In one group (55 patients), filtering surgery was performed without the use of Healon. In the remaining 59 patients, Healon was used to separate the iris from the cleft, the sclera from the sclera and the conjunctiva from the sclera. The surgical procedure used was the Stallard-Worst triangular modification of Cairns' method, combined with removal of the Tenon's capsule. The patients whose operations were performed with the aid of Healon had a higher success rate, as manifested by better and more permanent bleb formation and maintenance, more open clefts, less scarring, less peripheral anterior synechiae formation, and significantly lower long-term intraocular pressure. Moreover, the number of patients requiring supplemental postoperative timolol therapy was significantly smaller in the Healon group (5/59 patients: 8.5%) than in the control group (33/55 patients: 60%). There was a transient delay in the reduction of intraocular pressure following trabeculectomy in the Healon patients which was not observed in control patients. Apart from this, no adverse effects were associated with the use of Healon.