Article Sidebar
Published:
Sep 18, 2014DOI:
10.4314/gmj.v48i3.5Keywords:
Article Details
Articles published in the Ghana Medical Journal may not be published elsewhere without the consent of the publishers. Request for consent for reproduction of material published in the Ghana Medical Journal should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief. The publisher of this Journal reserves the right of copyright of all articles published in the Journal. It should also be understood by all authors that articles approved for publication in the journal are also deemed for publication online by the publisher.
Ghana Medical Journal is an Open Access journal and applies the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on the Creative Commons website (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) to articles and other content published in the Journal.
Main Article Content
The effect of medical therapy on IOP control in Ghana
Abstract
Background: To investigate IOP control following twelve months of continuous medical therapy in Ghana.
Methods: This retrospective case series included 163 glaucoma patients diagnosed at a referral eye center between 1996 and 2006. Information collected included age, gender, IOP at presentation, six months and one
year post treatment and types of anti-glaucoma medications prescribed. Optimal IOP control was defined according to results from the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study (AGIS), which demonstrated arrest of visual field progression in patients with IOP < 18 mmHg at all visitations: Level 1 (post-treatment IOP . 21 mmHg); Level 2 (. 18 mmHg) and level 3 (. 16
mmHg). The principal outcome measure was the achievement of IOP <18 mmHg at six months and twelve month visitations.
Results: One hundred sixty three patients were analyzed. These included 68 males (41.7%) and 95 females (58.3%). The mean age was 57}16 (median 59 years; range 7 . 95 years). There was no significant difference in age (p=0.35) or mean IOP (p=0.08) between genders. The mean pre-treated IOP of 31.9}8.9 mmHg significantly decreased to 21.3}6.6 mmHg at 6 months (p=0.001), with 57.4% of eyes at Level 1 IOP control, 25.3% at Level 2 and 15.4% at Level 3 and decreased further at 12 months to 20.7}6.9 mmHg (p=0.48) with 69.7% of eyes at Level 1, 34.4% at Level 2, and 12.4% at Level 3.
Conclusions: Current medical regimen is insufficient to reduce IOP to target levels as defined in the Advanced Glaucoma Intervention Study.
Keywords: Glaucoma, POAG, IOP, Ghana, intraocular pressure
