Trabeculectomy With Ologen

Trabeculectomy is the gold standard procedure for the surgical treatment of glaucoma. Antimetabolites such as mitomycin-C (MMC)are widely used as an adjunctive during surgery to prevent scarring of the bleb. MMC has the risk for creating thin bleb walls, avascular blebs, and increased risk to infection, blebitis and endophthalmitis. Recently, a biodegradable porous collagen-glycosaminoglycan copolymer matrix implant (Ologen), has become available for glaucoma surgery.Although a few studies on filtering surgery with Ologen implantation have been performed, there is yet no conclusive evidence on effectivity and safety with Ologen implantation when compared to trabeculectomy with MMC. This is a prospective intervention pilot study to determine the degree of intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering of trabeculectomy with Ologen implantation in comparison to trabeculectomy with MMC. Additionally, the safety (per- and postoperative complications) of the two procedures will be compared. The study hypothesis is that trabeculectomy with Ologen will be a safer procedure than trabeculectomy with MMC, but probably at the cost of a less potent IOP lowering.