Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose:To estimate the prevalence of legal blindness among new patients referred to the Glaucoma Service of the Malvinas Ophthalmological Hospital, which is located in a poor area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Methods:251 patients were referred to the Glaucoma Service of the Malvinas Ophthalmological Hospital between October 1999 and August 2000. Subjects underwent complete examination including best corrected visual acuity, slit lamp biomicroscopy, fundus examination, gonioscopy, applanation tonometry and Humphrey visual fields. Legal blindness was defined as visual acuity of 20/200 or worse and/or visual field constriction of 10° or less in the best eye. A brief questionnaire was also done to evaluate if the patients were aware of the disease they had. Results:Sixty one patients (24.30%) were legally blind in both eyes. Diagnoses were: primary open angle glaucoma 49.18%; primary angle closure glaucoma 19.67%, glaucoma associated with pseudoexfoliation 16.39%, neovascular glaucoma 8.19%, and other diagnoses 6.55%. No differences were found between males and females. An additional 77 patients (30.67%) were already legally blind in one eye. Eighty two percent of the patients knew that their blindness was due to glaucoma. Conclusion:Prevalence of legal blindness in this population of glaucoma patients is very high. Screening and therapy for glaucoma should be tailored in different populations.
Keywords: 354 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: prevalence/incidence • 357 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: treatment/prevention assessment/controlled clinical trials