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Prevalence of glaucoma in a Nigerian hospital


SF Usifoh
WA Udezi
JO Omage

Abstract

Glaucoma is a disease that damages the optic nerve and is a major cause of vision loss throughout the world. Globally about 87% of the visually impaired are living in developing countries. The WHO global target in vision
2020 for the right to sight initiative is to reduce blindness prevalence to  less than 0.5% in all countries or less than 1% in any community. This study was aimed at determining the current prevalence of glaucoma and the effect of gender and age on primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) in a Nigerian Hospital. A retrospective survey of all new patients at the eye clinic was conducted using their medical records for a period of six months. A total of 2,305 new patients visited the eye clinic for the period, out of this total 1203 (52.2%) are male and 1102 (47.81%) are female. Two hundred and seventeen (9.4%) patients were diagnosed with glaucoma out of which 115 (53%) were male while 102 (47%) were female. Primary Open Angle Glaucoma (POAG) was the most common type of glaucoma (91.24%), followed by Normal Tension Glaucoma (NTG) with a prevalence of 3.23%. No significant association was found between age or sex and types of glaucoma. PACG and Juvenile glaucoma remains relatively rare accounting for only 1.84% each in types of glaucoma. There was a monthly glaucoma prevalence increase from 10 to 26.64 % which appears to indicate that glaucoma prevalence is on the rise.


Keywords: Glaucoma; Prevalence; Intraocular pressure; Primary open angle glaucoma.


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eISSN: 0189-8442