Safety of Hyaluronan Thiomer i.o. Implant During Combined Phacoemulsification - Non Penetrating Deep Sclerectomy

The study is designed to assess the safety of Hyaluronan Thiomer i.o. implant in patients with primary open angle glaucoma undergoing a combined phacoemulsification - non penetrating deep sclerectomy procedure.

In this study, Hyaluronan Thiomer i.o. will be implanted during a combined surgery of cataract and non - penetrating deep sclerectomy in a group of 16 patients with primary open angle glaucoma and clinically significant cataract. Given that a considerable number of glaucoma patients also suffer from cataract, it is reasonable to test Hyaluronan Thiomer i.o. during a combined procedure of phacoemulsification and deep sclerectomy. This is also of importance because a combined procedure avoids the need of a second operation in this group of patients. Finally, it has been shown that combined phacoemulsification - deep sclerectomy does not induce a further risk compared to deep sclerectomy alone(open phase I study).

Safety will be assessed based on the occurrence of adverse events.

Efficacy assessments will be performed at every visit and efficacy analysis will include:

• Proportion of subjects at each study time point which will need additional IOP lowering drug therapy to achieve an IOP reduction to values \< 21 mmHg. If a subject needs more than one drug to achieve target IOP, the number of drugs needed to achieve adequate IOP reduction will be recorded.
• Proportion of subjects at each time point which will need Neodymium:YAG goniopuncture to achieve an IOP reduction to values \< 21 mmHg.