ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512150090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A precise series of laser burns is as effective as liquid drops in controlling glaucoma, a vision-robbing eye disease that affects about three million Americans, a study indicates.
In a study to be published today in the American Journal of Ophthalmology, researchers followed the progress of more than 200 patients for seven years and found there was little difference in the glaucoma eyes treated with laser and those treated with drops.
``By some interpretation, the laser treatment was slightly better than the drops,'' said Dr. Jacob Wilensky of the University of Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary, one of the specialists who conducted the study on patients at eight medical centers nationwide.
All of the patients in the study were diagnosed with early-stage, open-angle glaucoma, the most common form of the disease. One eye of each patient received laser therapy, while the other eye was treated with medication administered daily as drops.
After seven years, the researchers assessed the health of each eye, checking such things as vision sharpness, pressure inside the eyeball and the condition of the optic nerve.
``Our results suggest that initial treatment with laser is at least as effective as initial treatment with eye drops,'' Dr. Hugh Beckman, of the Sinai Hospital in Detroit and the chairman of the study, said in a statement.
Wilensky said that about an equal number of the laser-treated and medication-treated eyes needed more medication after two years.
Glaucoma is a disorder in which, for reasons unknown, fluids in the eye stop draining properly, causing pressure to build in the eyeball. Left unrelieved, the pressure can damage the optic nerve, causing gradual loss of sight. The condition is one of the most common causes of blindness.
The disease is most commonly treated with eye drops of drugs such as timolol that aids fluid drainage. In some patients, these drops can cause headaches or affect the heartbeat.
In the laser treatment, doctors use one-tenth of a second bursts from an argon laser to create extremely small burns around the edge of the iris, the circular, colored part of the eye. Forty-eight of these minute burns are administered in each of two visits. In some patients, the treatment caused a brief rise in eye pressure, but, for reasons not understood, it can then cause the eye to drain properly.
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