Medical and surgical outcomes in childhood glaucoma: a population-based study.

INTRODUCTION: To describe the clinical and surgical outcomes among patients younger than 20 years of age diagnosed with glaucoma in a defined population during a 40-year period.

METHODS: The medical records of all patients (<20 years) diagnosed with glaucoma in Olmsted County, Minnesota, from January 1, 1965, through December 31, 2004, were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS: Thirty children (45 eyes) were diagnosed with various forms of glaucoma during the 40-year study period. During a mean follow-up of 12.5 years (range, 7 days to 32 years), 18 (60%) of the 30 children underwent a mean of 2.7 surgeries (range, 1 to 10), including 6 (20%) patients whose sole surgery consisted of enucleation or evisceration for a blind, painful eye. Twenty-eight (93%) of the 30 children required medical management during the follow-up period, including 14 (47%) treated before their first surgery. At the final follow-up examination, 11 (37%) had a visual acuity of 20/200 or worse. The 10-year Kaplan-Meier risk of vision decreasing less than 20/200 in all glaucoma patients was 22.7% (95% CI, 0-40.9), and patients requiring any glaucoma surgery was 68.3% (95% CI, 42.4-82.6).

CONCLUSIONS: In this population-based study of children diagnosed with glaucoma during a 40-year period, most patients required surgery, with few being successfully controlled by medications alone. A poor visual outcome or the loss of an eye was relatively common.