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Doctors encouraged to overcome biases against surgery for glaucoma
 Dale K. Heuer |
ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite a historical bias toward medical treatment for glaucoma, surgical options should be considered earlier and more often, Dale K. Heuer, MD, said here.
The reluctance to try surgical procedures lies with various factors, including overestimation of the value of medical treatment, lack of certainty regarding the results and overestimation of how well patients adhere to such medical treatment, Dr. Heuer said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
"Our treatment of glaucoma is very much like what was said about [workers in the] Soviet economy: 'They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work.' " Dr. Heuer said. "Well, in glaucoma, we pretend to treat them, they pretend to take their drops."
Recent advances in laser surgery, aqueous shunts and trabeculectomy, along with novel surgical approaches that can improve or bypass trabecular meshwork, make it a necessity that doctors more actively consider surgery, he said.
"We really have put too much stock in our medical theory," Dr. Heuer said. "Given the advances with trabeculectomy and with shunts, I think we should recognize our biases against them and use them appropriately."
- Disclosure: Dr. Heuer is a consultant/adviser with Alcon Laboratories and Allergan.