Results of preoperative antiglaucomatous treatment and of Scheie's operation.

Scheie's operation of sclerectomy-cautery with peripheral iridectomy, first described in 1958 and first performed in Oxford in i962, is now the drainage operation most frequently used in the Oxford Eye Hospital. Thorpe (I955) and Scheie (I962) suggested that Diamox (acetazolamide) may adversely affect the outcome ofdrainage operations, reducing the size of the resultant drainage bleb. Agarwal and Malik (I957) described a series, fifty patients all treated with the drug before iridencleisis and fifty controls. There was no great difference between the two groups and they concluded that fear of possible adverse affects of Diamox on the results of drainage operation could be discounted. In the present series we have attempted to produce more conclusive evidence and to suggest measures which may increase the success-rate of drainage procedures.