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Ординатура / Офтальмология / Английские материалы / Glaucoma An Open Window to Neurodegeneration and Neuroprotection_Nucci, Cerulli, Osborne_2008.pdf
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C. Nucci et al. (Eds.)

Progress in Brain Research, Vol. 173

ISSN 0079-6123

Copyright r 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

CHAPTER 16

Laser therapies for glaucoma: new frontiers

G.L. Scuderi and N. Pasquale

University of Rome, ‘‘La Sapienza’’ 2nd Faculty of Medicine, Rome, Italy

Abstract: Glaucoma is a long-term ocular neuropathy defined by optic disc or retinal nerve fiber structural abnormalities and visual-field defects. Treatment for glaucoma consists of reducing intraocular pressure (IOP) to an acceptable target range to prevent further optic-nerve damage. Currently available treatments include topical drug (single then multidrug combinations) followed, for those patients on maximal tolerated medical therapy who still need additional IOP reduction, by laser treatments. These included laser iridotomy, laser trabeculoplasty, laser iridoplasty, laser cyclophotocoagulation. Although the various types of laser enjoyed great success as glaucoma therapy for many years, recently the excimer laser trabeculotomy is a promising IOP-lowering technique.

Keywords: glaucoma; iridectomy; iridotomy; pupillary block; trabecular ring; ciliary body

Background

For more than half a century, many types of lasers (xenon, krypton, argon, neodymium:YAG (Nd: YAG, diode, excimer) have been used to treat glaucoma in its different forms. The aims and outcomes of these treatments have varied. Some have been abandoned, along with the lasers used to perform them; others continue to play roles of primary importance in the parasurgical treatment of glaucoma.

Laser iridotomy

Von Graefe (1857) proposed surgical iridectomy for the treatment of glaucomatous disease. This approach was widely used for over a century, especially in cases of angle-closure glaucoma and in the treatment

Corresponding author. Tel.: 0633775035; Fax: 0633776628; E-mail: gianluca.scuderi@uniroma1.it

of acute attacks. Meyer-Schwickerath (1956) demonstrated the efficacy in this setting of xenon-arc laser iridectomy, but this technique was later abandoned because of its high rate of complications.

By the 1980s, incisional iridectomy for angleclosure glaucoma associated with pupillary block had been largely replaced by laser iridotomy using argon and later Nd:YAG lasers. Iridotomy has become the procedure of choice for preventing acute attacks of glaucoma, and its use has reduced the total number of these pathologic events (Scuderi et al., 1995).

Indications

The indications proposed by the European Glaucoma Society include all clinically relevant cases of pupillary block, regardless of degree. More specifically, the following conditions are considered:

Acute angle-closure glaucoma: Treatment must be administered during the initial phases

DOI: 10.1016/S0079-6123(08)01116-3

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