Is Glaucoma Laser Surgery A
Safe And Effective First Treatment For Glaucoma?
What is the Procedure for
Glaucoma Laser Surgery?
Laser therapy is a safe and effective
alternative to eyedrops as a first-line treatment for
patients with newly diagnosed primary open-angle glaucoma,
according to research results released in 2001. It will
prevent a lifetime of exposure to eyedrops that have many
side effects and may do damage to the
body.
It's not common knowledge but even the eye
drops used by your ophthalmologist to dilate your eyes can
CAUSE glaucoma.
The finding comes from a follow-up study
of patients in the nationwide Glaucoma Laser Trial (GLT),
sponsored by the National Eye Institute of the National
Institutes of Health. The study was done to learn if early
laser treatment is safe and whether it offers any medical
advantages over eye drops for newly diagnosed open-angle
glaucoma.
After some 7 years of follow up, all
measures used to evaluate the two treatments showed that the
"laser first" eyes and the "medication first" eyes had a
similar status on all measures used to evaluate the two
treatments. Researchers assessed changes in the patient's
visual field, visual acuity (sharpness), intraocular
pressure, and optic nerve.
"Our results suggest that initial
treatment with laser is at least as effective as initial
treatment with eye drops," said Hugh Beckman, M.D.
of
Mt.
Sinai
Hospital in Detroit, the study's
chairman.
However, researchers cautioned that
neither treatment method is a "magic bullet" for long-term
control of glaucoma. They noted that two years after the
start of treatment, 56 percent of "laser first" eyes and 70
percent of "medication first" eyes needed new or extra
medications to control pressure inside the
eye.
Carl Kupfer, M.D., director of the
National Eye Institute, stated that whichever first
treatment is chosen for newly diagnosed glaucoma, "the
disease is a long-term, chronic illness that must be
controlled over the patient's lifetime in order to save
vision."
About 3 million Americans have open-angle
glaucoma, the most common form of glaucoma in
the U.S. For unknown reasons, small changes
within the eye gradually interfere with the normal flow of
fluids that feed tissues in the front of the eye. If these
fluids do not drain properly, the resulting higher pressure
inside the eye can damage the optic nerve and narrow the
field of vision. This change happens so slowly that many
people are not diagnosed with glaucoma until they have
significant loss of vision.
A total of 271 patients were enrolled in
the initial GLT. Each patient had laser treatment in one eye
and medication in the other eye. The final results on 203
patients who were followed for an average of 7 years after
treatment were reported in today's American Journal of
Ophthalmology.
Researchers noted that both
treatments caused side effects. However, the side effects of
laser treatment were temporary or made no apparent
difference in the long run, while the side effects of
eyedrops were troublesome for some patients for as long as
the drops were used. Eye drops used for glaucoma treatment
can cause discomfort in the eye, blurry vision, headaches,
and fast or slow heartbeat.
Side Effects of the Glaucoma
Eye Drops on Your Body
And side effects
from these eye drops can cause lifelong
problems.
You cannot evaluate the damage
the eye drops are doing.
Even though you are just
putting the glaucoma eye drops in your eyes, they affect the
whole body. They are absorbed into your
system.
In 34 percent of "laser first" eyes the
laser treatment caused a temporary jump in intraocular
pressure for the first few days after treatment. Also, some
30 percent of the "laser first" eyes developed peripheral
anterior synechiae--adhesions that form when the iris sticks
to part of the cornea. However, on all clinical measures the
eyes with adhesions were the same as eyes with no
adhesions.
So do a
lot of research befoe you have glaucoma laser surgery. Find
out exactly how the glaucoma laser eye procedure is
done and if that is the solution or cure to
your problem.
sometimes misspelled:
glacoma, glawcoma, glucoma
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