Abstract
Purpose: :
To examine the efficacy and safety of selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) for patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and normal tension glaucoma (NTG).
Methods: :
Forty-two eyes of 34 patients with primary open angle glaucoma or normal tension glaucoma underwent SLT. All patients had no prior treatment of argon laser trabeculoplasty. All underwent the initial laser treatment of SLT in the lower 180° . A reduction of at least 20% in the intraocular pressure (IOP) from the baseline IOP was considered as success.
Results: :
Mean IOP before SLT was 21.3 ± 5.1 mmHg. Meas post SLT IOP decreased to 16.6 ± 4.4 mmHg and 16.9 ± 4.4 mmHg at 3 months and 6 months respectively after the treatment. Additional SLT in the upper 180° was carried out in 6 eyes. Three eyes required additional glaucoma surgery for IOP control. In our study, final success was observed in 25 eyes, with a success rate of 60% in three months after SLT. All of the 6 NTG patients with the mean baseline IOP of 14.3 mmHg and post SLT IOP of 12.5 mmHg were regarded as failure since the reduction of IOP was only 12.6%. SLT was more effective in patients with less than 3 kinds of anti-glaucoma eye drops than patients with more than 3 kinds of drops (P<0.05). Furthermore, SLT was more effective in patients with higher baseline IOP when compared with NTG patients. Other factors such as age, gender, phakic/pseudophakic were not significant factors of the success of SLT in this study.
Conclusions: :
SLT was effective in lowering IOP in patients with POAG and was found to be more effective for the patients under treatment with less than three kinds of anti-glaucoma drops. However, SLT is not effective for patients with NTG in this study.