Safe, accurate, efficacious – is CLASS the new NPDS?

Trabeculectomy is a traditional and common surgical intervention for IOP reduction in patients with open-angle glaucoma. CO2 laser-assisted sclerectomy (CLASS) procedures are less common but, according to a recent study, no less effective. Now, researchers have directly compared trabeculectomy with CLASS (1). In an examination of 70 eyes – 37 in the trabeculectomy group and 33 in the CLASS group – the CLASS group reported a success rate of 97.2 percent, an increase on the 80 percent experienced by the NPDS group. We asked Juan Carlos Izquierdo,

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Chief of Glaucoma at the Oftalmosalud Eye Institute in Lima, Peru, and lead author of the study, to tell us more.