This 15-minute treatment reduces fluid pressure within the eye using lasers for patients with glaucoma.
That is the conclusion of a three-year study published in the Lancet. The laser technique known as selective laser trabeculoplasty or SLT – should replace the prescribing of eye drops, the current favored way to treat glaucoma. The study has revealed that SLT is not only more effective and safer, but should also save the NHS £1.5m a year in tackling the condition.
“Simple, safe, pain-free laser treatments not only work better than eye drops but they cost the NHS less,” said one of the report’s authors, Gus Gazzard, who is based at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. “Using a laser for a one-off treatment also relieves patients from the tyranny of daily drops, which they have to take for the rest of their lives, and which can also produce side-effects.”