Prophylactic timolol for the prevention of high intraocular pressure after cataract extraction. A randomized, prospective, double-blind trial.

Eyes undergoing routine intracapsular cataract extraction (without alpha-chymotrypsin) often experience marked ocular hypertension in the first six hours after surgery. We conducted a randomized, prospective, double-blind study to determine if timolol maleate would prevent this increase in pressure. Thirty-five eyes undergoing routine cataract extraction were given a drop of either timolol 0.5% or placebo twice before and twice after surgery. Nine (56.3%) of 16 control eyes and 2 (10.5%) of 19 timolol-treated eyes had pressures above 30 mm Hg at six hours after surgery (P less than 0.025). Thus, prophylactic timolol 0.5% can substantially reduce the incidence of severe early postoperative ocular hypertension.