Background: A comparison of intraocular pressure (IOP) in cases of infantile glaucoma during general anesthesia was carried out by measurement with the iCare rebound tonometer (RBT) and a handheld applanation tonometer (Perkins).
Methods: A total of 45 eyes from pediatric patients with childhood glaucoma were included in this prospective trial. Bland-Altman plots and linear regression were used for statistical analysis.
Results: In almost two thirds of the eyes the difference between RBT and Perkins was 2 mmHg or less. A systemic bias of 1.96 mmHg and a 95% confidence interval of -3.35 to 7.26 was detected. Linear regression of the Bland-Altman data showed a proportional error (gradient=0.16; r(2)=0.23; p<0.01).
Conclusions: The iCare rebound tonometer is useful during general anesthesia in cases of childhood glaucoma. It provides comparable IOP values to applanation tonometry with a tendency to record higher values.