Demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with glaucoma in a tertiary eye facility in Ghana

Abstract

Background: Ghana has been reported to have the second highest prevalence of glaucoma worldwide.

Aim: Because of glaucoma causing numerous cases of irreversible blindness, there is the need for baseline data for glaucoma characteristics among Ghanaians. This study was conducted to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics of glaucoma patients in a tertiary eye centre.

Setting: The setting for this study is the eye clinic of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital, which is situated in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Methods: The medical records of patients who attended the eye centre from January 2013 to December 2017 were reviewed. The data collected included the demographic variables and clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with glaucoma.

Results: Of the 1100 medical records reviewed, 311 were diagnosed with glaucoma. Of the 311 patients, 159 (51.1%) were males and 152 (48.9%) were females, with their ages ranging from 11 to 104 years (mean = 60 ± 18.1 years). Primary open-angle, secondary, juvenile and primary angle-closure glaucomas accounted for 81.6%, 11%, 3.8% and 3.6%, respectively, of all cases of glaucoma. The average intra-ocular pressure was 28.2 ± 11 mmHg. The cup-to-disc ratio and visual acuity varied significantly among the various ethnic groups (p < 0.05), while the average intra-ocular pressure did not (p > 0.05). Timolol was the first line of treatment for 91.4% cases of glaucoma.

Conclusion: Primary open-angle glaucoma is the predominant type in this population, with the clinical characteristics of visual acuity and cup-to-disc ratio varying among the different Ghanaian ethnic groups. There is a need for population-based epidemiologic studies to validate the data collected in this hospital-based study.