Comparison of success rate and intraocular pressure spikes between selective laser trabeculoplasty and micropulse laser trabeculoplasty in African American and Hispanic patients.

AIM

To examine the efficacy and safety of micropulse laser trabeculoplasty (MLT) versus selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) in a large cohort of primarily African American and Hispanic patients.

METHODS

A single center retrospective comparative cohort review conducted at Cook County Health facilities that included patients with a diagnosis of open angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension who received an SLT or MLT procedure between January 2017 and May 2021.

RESULTS

Totally 131 eyes of 99 patients were analyzed. The 77 eyes received SLT and 54 received MLT. Seven out of 77 eyes in the SLT group (9.1%) and 1 out of 54 eyes in the MLT group (1.9%) had an IOP spike (defined as > 5 mm Hg) at either 1h or 1wk after procedure (=0.05, Chi-squared test with Haldane-Anscombe correction). The procedure failure rate at one year was 50% for SLT and 48% for MLT (=0.31).

CONCLUSION

MLT has a significantly lower incidence of pressure spikes and a similar treatment failure rate at 1-year post-procedure, demonstrating that it is a reasonable alternative compared to SLT.