A study has been conducted that shows how laser surgery can considerably improve success rates of treatment for glaucoma patients in Sub-Saharan Africa. Researchers registered approximately 200 patients who live with advanced glaucoma and gave half of them selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) and the rest received timolol eye drops.
The results showed that the treatment was successful in 31% of patients treated with eye drops after one year and 61% for those who received the selective laser trabeculoplasty.
According to Dr Heiko Philippin, ophthalmologist and study lead, said: ‘These study results are exciting because they show that we can treat glaucoma more successfully with a one-off or occasionally repeated outpatient laser treatment to reduce eye pressure at least for one year, compared to the most commonly used eye drops in lower income regions.’