[Trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy (author's transl)].

After recalling the aim of trabeculotomy and trabeculectomy, the author mentions similar techniques, which were in use before the microsurgical era. Some details of the two techniques, performed at Zurich University Eye Clinic exclusively under the operating microscope, are presented, as well as their indications and results. Trabeculotomy is used only for congenital glaucoma, while trabeculectomy is indicated in all forms of adult glaucoma and even for combined glaucoma and cataract operations. Neither technique, nor even a combination of the two, appreciable unproved the prognosis of buphthalmos, but the success rate of trabeculectomy in adult glaucoma is about 80%. Possible complications are mentioned, and alternative techniques, which can be performed either in cases of failure or by surgeons, who do not have at their disposal an operating microscope, which is indispensable for these two operations.