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

Abstract

Purpose: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusion: 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.