Laser Eye Surgery Used in Safe Treatment of Glaucoma

Patients that have been newly diagnosed with glaucoma will now have another treatment option in the future that is already showing a good track record for positive results in early research.

Glaucoma is not just one disease any more than cancer is just one condition. Glaucoma actually refers to a group of conditions that a person may suffer from. In a nutshell, glaucoma is a condition where pressure on the eye, left untreated, can cause permanent damage to the optic nerve and can progress to blindness. The two main types of glaucoma commonly diagnosed are "open angle" and "closed angle" glaucoma. Closed angle is often sudden and painful enough that most people seek fast treatment and the condition is open caught early. Open angle is a slowly progressing disease that causes years of damage often before it is caught and treated.

The National Eye Institute conducted laser treatment studies over a period of several years on patients that were suffering from newly diagnosed open-angle glaucoma to see if the laser could offer a treatment advantage over the traditional eye drops that are used to manage this condition.

Patients were given follow up exams after 7 years and there was very little difference in the patients that had laser surgery as compared to the patients that had used the traditional drops treatment. This has led researchers to conclude that treating open angle glaucoma initially with laser eye surgery can be just as effective as using drops. The patient's visual field, visual acuity (sharpness), intraocular pressure, and optic nerve were all measured and compared to the two groups to determine if laser surgery should be researched further as a treatment option for glaucoma. These results are showing promise for glaucoma patients especially since the eye drops used for traditional glaucoma treatment have side effects such as blurry vision and headaches and the laser surgery has none after the eye has healed.

Further study is needed as researchers cautioned that neither the new generation of eye drops nor laser surgery were a "magic cure" for glaucoma. Researchers hope to be able to give the 3 million Americans that suffer from open angle glaucoma a treatment option that will allow them to stop the damage done by the pressure and regain vision.