Affordable Sinskey Hook Goniotomy and Cataract Surgery in Black and Afro-Latino Patients Diagnosed with Glaucoma: Retrospective Real-World One-Year Results

<b>Background/Objectives:</b> This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of early phacoemulsification cataract surgery combined with goniotomy using a Sinskey hook in patients with glaucoma. <b>Methods</b>: This was a retrospective study conducted at Advanced Eye Care of New York; a private practice located in New York City. Most patients carried diagnoses of mild to moderate glaucoma and were mainly Black and Afro-Latino in origin. The patients included in this study were those who underwent early phacoemulsification cataract surgery combined with goniotomy performed with a reusable Sinskey hook (Ambler 200 μm tip) between January 2022 and August 2023 and completed 1 year of follow-up. The primary outcome measures were intraocular pressure, number of medications used, visual acuity, visual field indices, pre-/post-operative spherical refractive error, and adverse events. <b>Results</b>: A total of 121 eyes were identified with a 1-year follow-up that underwent this combined surgery. The mean age was 65. The mean medically treated pre-operative intraocular pressure ± standard deviation (SD) was lowered from 16.40 ± 4.5 mmHg at baseline to 14.66 ± 3.1 mmHg at 1 year, a statistically significant reduction of 10.6%. There was an 82% reduction in the mean ± SD number of intraocular pressure-lowering medications used, from 1.67 ± 1.2 at baseline to 0.30 ± 0.8 at 1 year. Out of the 121 eyes, 83% (103 eyes) remained medication-free at 1-year post-operation. Post-operatively, there were five IOP spikes (IOP ≥ 30 mmHg) and eight hyphemas that were noted, addressed, and resolved. <b>Conclusions</b>: Early cataract surgery combined with Sinskey hook goniotomy microinvasive surgery effectively reduced intraocular pressure and medication burden in this cohort of predominantly Black and Afro-Latino patients diagnosed with glaucoma with 1-year follow-up.