Calculating risk key to determining who develops glaucoma

NEW YORK — Risk calculators can be a useful tool for assessing the risk of developing glaucoma, according to a surgeon speaking here at the OSN New York meeting.

"If we can assess risk and really identify high-risk patients, we can hone our treatments to people who would most likely benefit. We have to think of people as individuals and what their risk is of developing glaucoma. What is this patient's risk of developing not only glaucoma, but developing a visual disability?" Jody R. Piltz-Seymour, MD, said.

A model for risk calculation was created based on findings from the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study, which identified several risk factors for glaucoma, including older age, higher IOP, thinner corneas and a higher standard deviation on visual field testing, Dr. Piltz-Seymour said.

She noted that after years of minimal-to-modest innovations in glaucoma surgery, researchers are now at the forefront of developing surgical treatments for glaucoma.

Two of the most promising are the Trabectome (NeoMedix), a device with a 75% long-term success rate that is inserted through the clear cornea and the anterior chamber, and a gold shunt, which drains fluid from the anterior chamber into the suprachoroidal space.

"We are now on the forefront of having efficacious surgeries with much better safety profiles," she said.