Trabeculectomy as treatment for glaucoma: a preliminary report.

This preliminary report concerns 22 patients (36 eyes with glaucoma) who had trabeculectomy. Results are successful in 32 eyes, failures in 4 eyes. Patients ranged in age from 10 years to 78 years and their clinical courses have been followed from 1 year to 2 1/2 years. Postoperative complications were minimal: a shallow chamber that spontaneously reformed; vitreous loss, which did not affect the outcome; and breakdown of the conjunctival flap, which resulted in loss of the bleb. The factors of age, sex, race (white and black) have no great significance, although more female patients formed blebs and had control of intraocular pressure without medication than did male patients. The bleb is believed to be primarily a filtering structure. The trabeculectomy appears to be an effective surgical approach to the treatment of glaucoma. The surgical technique is described.