Quality of life following laser treatment for glaucoma is to be compared with outcomes from traditional eye drop therapies in a new £1.7m study at Moorfields Eye Hospital.
The laser in glaucoma and ocular hypertension (LIGHT) study will assess whether laser treatment would provide a better quality of life than traditional eye drops if laser was the first form of treatment offered.
It will involve more than 700 patients who have been newly diagnosed with glaucoma and have received no prior treatment.
One group will be treated initially with selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) before moving to eye drops later as necessary, while a second group will use eye drops from the outset. Quality of life will be assessed every year for three years using a questionnaire.
Gus Gazzard, the consultant ophthalmologist leading the study at Moorfields, said: 'Glaucoma is a very common, blinding disease, which is getting more prevalent every year. The traditional treatment with drops can be unpleasant and is often disliked by patients, so I wanted to find out whether laser treatment is as good as it appears - but more importantly to see if patients preferred it.'
The project, between Moorfields and UCL Priment clinical trials unit, has been backed by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment Programme and follows a direct research recommendation by NICE.
Current models predicted that using SLT first in all new glaucoma patients could provide the NHS with annual savings of £2.4m for new glaucoma patients or around £80m if applied to everyone with glaucoma.