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 (P=0.05, Chi-squared test with Haldane-Anscombe correction). The procedure failure rate at one year was 50% for SLT and 48% for MLT (P=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.