ABSTRACT
Purpose: To compare the glaucoma assessment skills among general ophthalmologists in their referral patients over 5 years. Methods: This was a retrospective auditing of the electronic medical record database. Details of consecutive new glaucoma patients seen in the glaucoma services of a tertiary eye care institute in 2013 and 2018 were collected. Details of each patient included the clinical presentation, baseline intra?ocular pressure (IOP), type and severity of glaucoma, referral details, gonioscopy, HVF (Humphrey visual field) data, and the number of medications. Statistical tests used were the Chi?square test and T test using SPSS version 22. Results: Of 28,886 medical records screened, 211 and 568 new glaucoma patients were retrieved in 2013 and 2018, respectively. The patients presenting in 2018 were younger (58.1 ± 15.4 years) at presentation than in 2013 (65.6 ± 15.2 years), P < 0.01, and also had higher baseline IOP (IOP ?40 mm Hg was found in 9.5% in 2018 versus 2.4% in 2013; P < 0.01). The percentage of eyes with presenting visual acuity worse than 20/400 or 20/600 was higher in the patients presenting in 2018 (22.2% vs. 15.1%; P = 0.03). Although primary glaucoma predominated in both periods, the number of eyes referred to as disc suspects showed an increase in 2018 (4.7% to 14.4%; P < 0.01). Among 195 and 517 referrals in 2013 and 2018, respectively, the documentation of clinical findings were dismally poor in both the groups in terms of absent gonioscopy (99% vs. 98.2%, P = 0.4), absent disc details (89.6% vs. 91%, P = 0.5), or absent visual field analysis (79.1% vs. 74.8%, P = 0.2). However, the missing IOP values were significantly better in the latter year (77.3% vs. 57.2%; P < 0.01). Conclusion: The increase in the number of new glaucoma patients and referrals did not show a corresponding improvement in documentation of findings except for IOP recording among general ophthalmologists. Hence, we need to re?emphasize the training of general ophthalmologists on basic glaucoma evaluation to improve their referral ability