Overview
- The study, published this week in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, used TriNetX records to compare 210,701 matched people over 40 with and without statin prescriptions and found a 15% lower hazard of new open‑angle glaucoma at five years and a 10% reduction at ten years.
- A separate analysis of about 29,600 matched patients who already had glaucoma found statin use was associated with lower five‑year rates of treatment escalation: 36% fewer incisional surgeries, 55% fewer minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries (MIGS), 60% fewer selective laser trabeculoplasties (SLT), and an 11% lower chance of being prescribed additional pressure‑lowering eye drops.
- The associations were strongest at five years and persisted, though attenuated, at ten years, and were most consistent for atorvastatin and rosuvastatin across the cohorts.
- Key limits of the analysis include its nonrandomized design and missing clinical ophthalmic data such as intraocular pressure, visual fields, and optic‑nerve imaging, so the authors used treatment escalation as a proxy for progression and warned unmeasured factors could confound results.
- Because intraocular pressure reduction remains the only proven way to slow glaucoma, investigators say the findings support further study of statins’ vascular and neuroprotective effects and that prospective randomized trials are needed before changing clinical care.