ABSTRACT
Background Increase of lens thickness at incipient cataract is a key factor of onset of primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG).Phacoemulsification (Phaco) or phacotrabeculectomy (Phacotrabe) have been documented to be effective for the patients of PACG associated with cataract.However,which surgery is more effective and safe is lack of evidence.Objective This study was to assess and compare the clinical effectiveness of Phaco versus Phacotrabe for PACG with cataract.Methods The relevant literature was searched electronically from the PubMed (1966 to June 2011),EMB Reviews (1966 to June 2011) and Cochrane Library (Issue 1,2011).The manually searching of relevant conference proceedings was used as the supplement.The articles of randomized controlled trial (RCT) about the clinical effectiveness of Phaco versus Phacotrabe for PACG with cataract were included.The methodology quality of included literature was graded.The analysis indexes included intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowing range,postoperative administration of glaucoma drugs,incidence of positive complication,postoperative best corrective visual acuity (BCVA) and perimetry damage.The RevMan4.2 software from Cochrane Collaboration was used for the Meta analyses.Results Three RCTs about phaco versus Phacotrabe for PACG with cataract were selected in this study with the 164 eyes of 164 cases.Meta analysis showed that the IOP-lowing range was larger in the Phacotrabe group compared to only Phaco group with the WMD of 1.17 and 95％ CI of 0.06-2.27 (P =0.040),and the drug dosage of anti-glaucoma was less in the Phacotrabe group in comparison with the Phaco group with the WMD of 0.5 and 95％ CI of 0.24-0.77 (P =0.000).However,the incidence of postoperative complication was higher in the Phacotrabe group than that of the Phaco group with the RR of 0.08 and 95％ CI of 0.02-0.33 (P =0.000).No significant difference was found in the BCVA (WMD =0,95％ CI:-0.13-0.13,P=1.00) andperimetry (WMD =1.01,95％CI:0.56-1.82,P=0.98).Conclusions Compared with Phaco,Phacotrab has a better IOP-lowing effectiveness and slightly worse safety.Phaco and Phacotrab have a fairly influencc in the postoperative BCVA and perimetry.As the sample sizes of the included trials are relatively small,more welldesigned large-scale RCTs are needed.