ex-press mini-implant in the management of ocular hypertension secondary to silicon oil tamponade

to compare the success of patients with ocular hypertension, secondary to pars plana vitrectomy and silicon oil tamponade, who had an ex-press glaucoma filtration device p50 (alcon laboratories, inc. fort worth, texas, usa) to those who had conventional trabeculectomy this study has been performed. the records of 10 eyes of 10 consecutive subjects who had ex-press implants and 9 eyes of 9 consecutive controls who had trabeculectomy procedures were reviewed. success was defined as an intraocular pressure (iop) reduction in patients who did not require further glaucoma surgery in the eye of note, during the whole follow-up. iop reduced of 10.3±9.7 mmhg (range -31 to 3) in the ex-press group and of 13.9±11.4 mmhg (range -35 to -4) in the trabeculectomy group. the difference in the percentage of iop reduction between the standard trabeculectomy group (42.7%) and the ex-press group (35.9%) was statistically not significant (p = .72). the ex-press device seems to be at least as effective as the standard trabeculectomy in lowering the iop of patients with hypertension secondary to pars plana vitrectomy and silicon oil tamponade. even if the data further suggest that the ex-press device does not result in an overall greater percentage reduction in iop than with trabeculectomy, this does not reach statistical significance.