The STARflo™ glaucoma implant: a single-centre experience at 24 months

Purpose To evaluate the 24-month outcomes following STARflo (TM) implantation in patients with moderate or advanced open-angle glaucoma. Methods We enrolled 32 patients (40 eyes) with high intraocular pressure (IOP) resistant to topical and systemic medical therapy. After baseline assessments, patients were implanted with STARflo (TM) implants with the goal of IOP reduction and long-term maintenance. Patients were followed for 24 months. Complete success of implantation was defined as a restoration of normal IOP without topical glaucoma medications, while qualified success was defined as a restoration of normal IOP with implantation and topical glaucoma medications. Results STARflo (TM) did not satisfactorily reduce IOP at 24 months. Twenty-eight eyes (70%) had elevated IOP at least once during the 24 months post-implantation period. Five eyes (12.5%) developed corneal decompensation. The average IOP 24 months after the surgery was 13.42 +/- 6.03 mmHg and was not significantly different than IOP at 12 months (13.2 +/- 5.59 mmHg). Moreover, 45% of treated eyes needed additional glaucoma procedures after 1 year and 2 years to achieve these IOPs. STARflo (TM) did reduce the average number of topical glaucoma medications from 2.7 pre-implantation to 1.17 at 24 months postoperatively in the rest 55% of the eyes. Conclusions The STARflo (TM) implantation did not meet success criteria and so appears to be an ineffective alternative to filtering surgical procedures for patients with treatment-refractory open-angle glaucoma.