# Economic impact of initial glaucoma treatment with selective laser trabeculoplasty on the Brazilian Public Health System

## TL;DR

This study compares the economic impact of laser treatment versus eye drops for glaucoma in Brazil, finding laser treatment to be more cost-effective over time.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel economic analysis of selective laser trabeculoplasty versus traditional eye drops for glaucoma treatment in the Brazilian Public Health System.

## Key findings

- Selective laser trabeculoplasty showed significantly lower economic impact than eye drops over one and five years.
- The cost difference reached over 8 billion USD at five years for 3% of the Brazilian population over 40 years old.
- Laser treatment was consistently more cost-effective than latanoprost and timolol maleate in all scenarios.

## Abstract

To evaluate the economic impact of the following initial treatment scenarios
for glaucoma on the Brazilian Public Health System (SUS): (1) traditional
continuous instillation of hypotensive eye drops and (2) single session of
selective laser trabeculoplasty.

Economic impact was analyzed in three scenarios, from the least to the most
conservative, for a hypothetical cohort of 5,000 individuals with open-angle
glaucoma. Thereafter, projections were made on the basis of a glaucoma
prevalence of 3% in the 2021 Brazilian population size.

All three scenarios demonstrated that selective laser trabeculoplasty
exhibited a significantly lower economic impact than the eye drops on SUS
over one and five years. Furthermore, the difference was more than United
States Dollar 8 billion at five years when considering 3% of the Brazilian
population aged >40 years in 2021.

As the initial treatment for primary open-angle glaucoma, selective laser
trabeculoplasty exhibited a lower economic impact on SUS than latanoprost
and timolol maleate eye drop instillation in all the studied scenarios over
one and five-year periods.