SECO 2025: takeaways from laser-related sessions
Nathan Lighthizer, OD, an optometrist and faculty member at the NSU Oklahoma College of Optometry in Tahlequah, talks about his presentations from SECO 2025: what you need to know.
Question:
You are presenting several lectures at SECO 2025. Can you talk about the session titled “Laser Therapy for the Open Angle Glaucomas, ALT and SLT” that you are presenting? What are the key takeaways?
Nathan Lighthizer, OD:
Yeah, so it’s laser therapy. We’re specifically talking about SLT, which is now a first-line treatment option for glaucoma. It’s going to be encouraging optometrists at SECO to think about utilizing SLT earlier in our glaucoma treatment paradigm. Traditionally, maybe it’s been after they were on a drop or 2 or 3, and patients often struggle on a drop or 2 or 3, remembering them every single day. The data is now overwhelming from the light trial among many others that SLT is first-line therapy and actually patients are more likely to progress on their disease on drops versus if they’ve had an SLT done because of the compliance aspect.
It’s going to be encouraging docs to what is SLT, when should it be considered? Now there’s 12 states that allow optometrists to do laser procedures of this is a procedure that optometry should be owning, should be doing more and more to continue to push for scope expansion with laser, specifically SLT among other lasers as well. I’s really bringing awareness of let’s rethink glaucoma and gone are the days of drop 1, drop 2, drop 3, let’s move SLT more to first-line therapy. We’ve got wonderful drops, we’ve got a wonderful laser now that can be utilized and help the burden, help ease the burden on patients. That’s what we’re going to talk about in the SLT lecture.
Question:
Can you talk about the session titled “Laser Tissue Interactions” that you are presenting? What are the key takeaways?
Nathan Lighthizer, OD:
Yeah, so laser tissue interactions is our number 2 in our laser procedures course, the laser certification course, that 16 hour course. It really helps to build the foundation of laser principles of understanding when you do a laser, whether it’s a capsulotomy or an iridotomy or an SLT. When you’re using different lasers, whether they’re YAG lasers or green lasers or SLT lasers, how do the lasers interact with the tissue and how do the tissue variables affect how the laser works? There are some lasers that are pigment dependent and other lasers that are pigment independent, and we have to understand how this affects how a laser is going to work.
It’s really a background lecture of building up the principles of understanding laser’s lecture of how different lasers work, how the tissue variables affect the laser and how the laser affects the tissue.
Question:
Is there anything else coming out of SECO that you’re excited about?
Nathan Lighthizer, OD:
SECO offers top-notch education. I mean, it’s just such a great meeting. There’s just so much educational offerings. We’ve got the laser certification course, the surgical pavilion, a wonderful exhibit hall, a bunch of hands-on workshops. SECO just does an amazing job of bringing together industry and bringing together education and your top-notch key opinion leaders, and at the same time helping to advance optometry forward. I’m looking forward to the entire big picture of what SECO brings from the exhibit hall to the education, to meeting with colleagues and moving optometry forward. It’s an amazing meeting and I’m looking forward to going back to Atlanta.
