Patients who have recently undergone vitrectomy are at a higher risk for developing primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), according to new research published by investigators from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

To compile the data, the researchers used information from every resident of Olmsted County, Minn., who had a scleral buckle surgery, vitrectomy or both between 2004 and 2015. Of those residents, 58 had a scleral buckle performed, 57 had a buckle with vitrectomy and 229 only had the vitrectomy. Over the course of the study, not one of the 58 who had scleral buckle alone developed POAG. However, for the other two groups, the team found the 10-year probability of POAG for the scleral buckle with vitrectomy group was 17.5% and, for the vitrectomy alone group, it was 10.0%. Either is considerably higher than the 1% general rate for the population of Olmstead County.

The study also notes that the mean and median time interval for POAG development after the procedure was 40.2 and 46.1 months, respectively.