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 that I °saw were it [had] about [an] 80% success rate. 461/
 Unfortunate!y, Green fails to estimate how many of those
 ophthalmologists employing laser surge_ qualify under his
 definition as #skilled utilizers. _
 Keith Green, Pho D., is not a practitioner and he may
 not fully appreciate the limitations of laser surgery. Dro
 Merritt, a skilled ophthalmoqic sur_eon_ points out that all
 published studies indicate after laser surgery patients must be
 .......
 placed back on their pre-stirgery medicines; #so, in effect,
 [laser surgery] is an adjunct to the [medical] therapy. _ He
 continues:
 In my own series [of laser surgeries] of 13
 patients_ 16 eyes, every patient had
 _returned to] their Dre-con_olled pressures
 _withinj three _o four months after _asero
 < (Emphasis added)° It is ineffective . . o I
 had to conclude from my data -_ and now data
 ...._: is coming out that in the pigmented people it
 is totally ineffective . o _ There is a
 gentlemen . . . in Georgetown Doctor
 Schwartz, who published in _/ch_ves_gq_
 Ophthalmoloc_ [witness interrupted by Mso
 Shirley] _ . . [In] pigmente_d patients o . .
 Afro-Americans, blacks_ and the failure rates
 [for laser surgery_ is 70% in Washington,
 DoC. blacks. My experienc_=_ the failure
 rate is higher [than 70%]. _-_o_
 Simply stated_ the pharmacological and surgical methods
 .....
 available for the reduction of elevated IOP are not adequate to
 meet the needs of a significant nnmher of glaucoma patients.
 Drug therapies may fail to establish IOP control in 20% or more
 of those afflicted with glaucoma, with even higher rates of
 4eLl /_. Tro 9-168.
 462/ Cross-examination of Dr. John ME_rritt, Tro 10-110-11i.
 :Z
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