This real-world, retrospective review of SLT outcomes at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust aimed to establish whether there is any net benefit in using topical drop treatment prior to SLT compared with proceeding directly to SLT as a first-line treatment. Several studies have shown that SLT gives the greatest reduction in intraocular pressure (IOP) for eyes that have not received prior treatment with drops. Here, we look at different topical therapies used prior to SLT and investigate SLT efficacy following these. Data were collected from 196 SLT naïve eyes with ocular hypertension or primary open-angle glaucoma who underwent SLT between January 2022 and May 2022. The eyes had received either no prior topical therapy or one or more topical IOP-lowering agents. No significant difference was found in the overall reduction in IOP after SLT between eyes treated with prostaglandin analogue (PGA) drops alone prior to SLT (7.89 mmHg, n = 74) and eyes that received SLT as first-line treatment (6.88 mmHg, n = 56). Eyes also treated with beta-blockers did show a greater reduction in IOP. This retrospective study, based in a UK NHS centre, found no significant benefit in using PGA drops prior to SLT compared to SLT as first-line treatment for lowering IOP.
Davies et al. (2026) studied this question.