Purpose: To correlate subclinical conjunctival inflammation and trabeculectomy results.
Methods: Prospective case series of 28 patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (28 eyes) under topical anti-glaucoma medication who underwent trabeculectomy. During surgery, a sample from the inferior bulbar conjunctiva was collected and the expression of HLA-DR together with the presence of inflammatory cells was correlated with trabeculectomy outcomes after 24 months. Surgical success was defined as intraocular pressure between 6 and 20 mmHg irrespective of the use of anti-glaucoma medication.
Results: Five patients missed follow-up visits and were removed from the study. Ten eyes (43.5%) were HLA-DR(+), but no significant differences were observed between eyes with successful and failed surgeries (p = 0.214). There was no significant association between the number of neutrophils and surgical outcomes (p = 0.353).
Conclusions: The presence of inflammatory cells and expression of the inflammation marker HLA-DR in the conjunctiva did not correlate with the prognosis of trabeculectomy in this study.
Keywords: Conjunctiva; HLA-DR; glaucoma; inflammation; trabeculectomy.