Objective: To evaluate the short-term and long-term efficacy of Ahmed valve implantation for refractory glaucoma and discuss its intraoperative and postoperative complications and management.

Methods: 20 cases of refractory glaucoma underwent Ahmed valve implantation, including 9 cases of neovascular glaucoma, 7 cases of aphakic or pseudophakic glaucoma, 3 cases of congenital glaucoma and one primary chronic angle-closure glaucoma.

Results: One month postoperatively, the intraocular pressure (IOP) was less than or equal to 2.8 kPa (1 kPa = 7.5 mmHg) in fifteen cases, with a total success rate of 75%. For cases with neovascular glaucoma, the success rate was 55.6%, while for the others, the rate was 90.9%. After six months of follow-up for 12 patients, the total success rate was 58.3%, for neovascular glaucomas and other glaucomas, the rate was 40.0% and 71.4%, respectively. The complications included transient hyphema, early postoperative hypotony, obstruction of the tube tip, tube touch to lens or cornea, tube exposure, exudative choroidal detachment and dropout of the plate.

Conclusions: Ahmed valve implantation is an effective method in the management of refractory glaucoma in spite of its unnegligible complications.