Dose, timing and frequency of subconjunctival 5-fluorouracil injections after glaucoma filtering surgery

Although adjunctive postoperative 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) injections are known to improve the success rate of glaucoma surgery, it is still unknown what dose, timing and frequency of application will give the best results with respect to the inhibition of postoperative scarring and intraocular pressure regulation. We therefore designed the following retrospective investigation. We studied 172 eyes from 172 patients who had undergone trabeculectomy with adjuvant 5-FU-therapy. Variations of dosage, timing and frequency were analysed retrospectively. Surgery was defined as a complete success when the patient reached an intraocular pressure under 21 mmHg and a reduction of 20% 12 months after the operation. A relative success was achieved with these criteria under additional local medication. Not reaching these postoperative criteria for a complete success was classified as failure. On average, adjunctive 5-FU-treatment was started 4.6+/-5.85 days postoperatively. The injections contained between 2 mg and 5 mg FU, and the mean total dose was 26.6+/-13.2 mg (range 5-65 mg). Surgery on 94 patients (54.65%) was classified as "complete success", that on 25 patients (14.53%) was classified as "relative success" and that on 53 eyes (30.81%) was classified as "failure" 12 months (+/-3 months) postoperatively. The best results were obtained when the treatment started on or before the first postoperative day (68.0-71.4% complete success; P