Abstract
Purpose: :
4.8% of the world’s blindness is due to diabetic retinopathy making it the fifth leading cause of global blindness. To reduce this number it is important to screen these patients for early intervention.The purpose of this presentation is to evaluate the effectiveness of diabetic retinopathy screening (DRS) service in a defined population.
Methods: :
Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data over a twelve-month period (2010- 2011).
Results: :
Wirral has a population of 325,000. 4.7% of the population are diabetics and were eligible for DRS during this period. 100% of the diabetic populations were invited but only 84.6% of them accessed the DRS service.5.6% of the screened population were referred to the hospital with referable retinopathy - 16% were treated with laser and 4% required vitrectomy.0.0005% of the screened population were registered blind due to diabetic retinopathy during this period. Another 6 patients were registered blind due to diabetic retinopathy during this period who never went for DRS service.There has been a 7.3% increase in the number of patients in the DRS service from Oct’10 to Sep’11 and a 14.2% increase in referable retinopathy as compared to previous year.
Conclusions: :
The DRS service in Wirral has had a significant impact on identifying sight-threatening retinopathy in last 12 months. There has been an increase in uptake of the DRS service, which emphasizes the need for appropriate support to ensure its success.This retrospective review reinforces the need for active participation by patients, general-practitioners, diabetic-screeners and ophthalmologists to ensure adequate uptake of services.
Keywords: diabetic retinopathy • diabetes • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques