The incidence and risk factors of neovascular glaucoma secondary to proliferative diabetic retinopathy after vitrectomy

Abstract

Objective: The incidence and risk factors of neovascular glaucoma (NVG) secondary proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) after pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) are unclear and reports in the published literature are inconsistent. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to clarify the risk factors associated with neovascular glaucoma.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, and The Cochrane Library were systematically searched without language limitations for studies related to NVG after PPV in PDR patients. We used R software to fit the correlation between incidence and the date of publication for studies and performed a Spearman analysis. For binary and continuous variables, the odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were pooled, respectively, using Review Manager 5.3 (The Cochrane Collaboration).

Results: Twenty-six studies with 5161 patients were included in our meta-analysis. The overall pooled incidence of NVG after PPV in PDR patients was 6% (95% CI, 0.05-0.07, p-value < 0.00001). Pooled estimates indicated a positive correlation for NVG after PPV in PDR patients with higher baseline IOP (OR, 1.26; 95%CI,0.56-1.95, p-value = 0.0004), preoperative iris neovascularization (INV) (OR, 5.66; 95% CI, 2.10-15.23, p-value = 0.0006), preoperative or intraoperative combined cataract surgery (OR, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.15-3.46, p-value = 0.01), postoperative vitreous hemorrhage (VH) (OR, 3.53; 95% CI, 1.63-7.66, p-value = 0.001), and a negative correlation with age (OR, -2.90; 95%CI, -5.00 to -0.81, p-value < 0.007).

Conclusion: Our systematic review and meta-analysis indicated that the main risk factors for NVG after PPV in PDR patients included higher baseline IOP, preoperative INV, preoperative or intraoperative combined cataract surgery, postoperative VH, and was negatively correlated with age.

Keywords: Neovascular glaucoma; proliferative diabetic retinopathy; vitrectomy.