Retrospective cohort study of 163 pediatric glaucoma patients.

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to describe a cohort of pediatric glaucoma patients in Quebec. DESIGN This study was a retrospective medical record review. PARTICIPANTS The study included patients younger than 18 years who were diagnosed with glaucoma between 1980 and 2000 and monitored at the Ophthalmology Clinic of the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Centre (Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine) and had ocular hypertension or glaucoma in at least 1 eye. METHODS The data gathered concerned patients' information, the surgical procedures performed post diagnosis associated with the glaucoma diagnosis, and the drugs prescribed. RESULTS The study included 163 patients (254 eyes), a total of 374 surgical procedures, and the use of 2885 antiglaucoma drug therapies. For the 4 most frequent pathologies, patients were monitored for 8.4 (SD 4.2) years for aphakic glaucoma/pseudophakic glaucoma, 10.0 (SD 5.5) years for congenital glaucoma, 9.0 (SD 5.2) years for Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome, and 7.5 (SD 3.4) years for uveitic glaucoma. In total, 113 patients had at least 1 surgical procedure (69.3%). Before 1985, only timolol, pilocarpine, epinephrine, acetazolamide, and dipivefrin were used. Other beta blockers then appeared (betaxolol, levobunolol between 1985 and 1990, and the timolol-pilocarpine association between 1990 and 1995). After 1995, we saw the arrival of a new class of prostaglandin F2 alpha analogues, with latanoprost and other carbonic acid anhydrase inhibitors such as dorzolamide and brinzolamide. CONCLUSIONS This study illustrates the great variety of glaucoma diagnostic subgroups and the use of surgery and drug therapies.