Pseudoexfoliation syndrome in Ethiopian glaucoma patients.

BACKGROUND: Pseudoexfoliation syndrome (PXS) has variable prevalence rates in the glaucoma population depending on geographic location and racial composition of the population studied. There is no data available on this subject in Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of PXS among Ethiopian glaucoma clinic population. DESIGN: A prospective study. SETTING: The Glaucoma Clinic of Menelik-II-Hospital, which is a tertiary eye care centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. PARTICIPANTS: All new patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension (ocular HPN) seen during the study period from 1st April to 30th September 1996 were included in the study. RESULTS: Our of the 432 new patients of glaucoma or ocular HPN seen during the study, 108 patients (25%) had PXS. The age of PXS cases ranged from 32 years to 86 years (mean 62.3 years). There were 80 males and 28 females. Of the PXS patients, 104 (96.3%) were cases of chronic open angle glaucoma, while angle closure glaucoma and ocular HPN were rare comprising only two patients (1.85%) each. CONCLUSION: The relatively high prevalence rate of PXS among Ethiopian glaucoma clinic population found in this study stresses the need for further community-based research in order to prevent blindness due to glaucoma associated with PXS.

Trabeculectomy: complications and success in IOP control.

A retrospective study of the complications of trabeculectomy performed in the Department of Ophthalmology, Medical Faculty, Addis Ababa University between 1987-1990 is presented. Trabeculectomy was performed in 470 eyes of 354 patients during the four years period. The types of glaucomas were primary open angle glaucoma in 215 eyes (46%), primary angle closure glaucoma in 105 eyes (22%), secondary glaucoma in 117 eyes (25%) and congenital glaucoma in 33 eyes (7%). The post operative complications were shallow anterior chamber (29%), cataract (24%), hyphema (24%), uveitis (17%), choroidal detachment (4%), and conjunctival defect (3%). The post operative results show that intraocular pressure of 355 eyes (76%) were controlled with trabeculectomy alone, 17 eyes (4%) were controlled with trabeculectomy and additional medical treatment and in 98 eyes (21%), trabeculectomy with medical treatment failed to control the intraocular pressure. The overall success rate in controlling IOP was 79% and this result is similar to and comparable with results in the literature. The large exclusion (277 patients) is largely due to the fact that records could not be found.