Materials and methods Two hundred consecutive trabeculectomies from a hospital based university tertiary referral practice were reviewed. All surgery was performed between January 1992 and October
1993.Surgery was performed as inpatient or day surgery, under local anaesthesia by the authors. Our technique has been reported elsewhere.9 Briefly, a fomix based conjunctival flap was used routinely except in cases when mitomycin C was applied. In these cases a limbal based conjunctival flap was used. A triangular half thickness scleral flap with 4 mm sides was created in each case, and after the sclerectomy and iridectomy were performed, the flap was firmly closed with two or three 10/0 nylon sutures. The conjunctiva was closed with 8/0 dexon. At the completion of surgery topical atropine sulphate was applied, and subconjunctival gentamicin 20 mg and dexamethasone sodium phosphate 4 mg were given.Postoperatively, patients were evaluated on days 1 and 2, twice in the second week, then once in the third week, and then at 6 weeks. If there were complications patients were seen more frequently than this. Suture lysis was not performed before day 4 or after the third week. The indication for suture lysis was poor aqueous filtration (flat bleb, high IOP) due to tight wound closure. The argon laser settings were a 50 ,um spot size, a duration of 0 1 second, and a power setting between 0 450 and 0-600 W. A Hoskins lens was used in each case. After suture lysis, gentle digital massage or lens pressure was usually applied to elevate the bleb. Patients were re-examined within 1 hour of suture lysis, 24 hours later, and as often as required thereafter.Statistical analysis of data included a t test for comparisons of means. The x2 test was used for comparison of proportions.
