title: Glaucoma at a tertiary referral eye hospital in Nepal.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Glaucoma is an important cause of blindness.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To report the distribution of various types of glaucoma among patients presenting to a tertiary eye hospital in Nepal.
  
  
  METHODS
  All new patients visiting the hospital between March 2007 and February 2008 underwent a comprehensive eye examination. Whenever glaucoma was suspected, patients were referred to fellowship-trained glaucoma specialists. Patients received a comprehensive glaucoma workup including applanation tonometry, stereoscopic examination of the optic nerve head performed by the glaucoma specialists, and a Humphrey visual field analysis (SITA 24 - 2).
  
  
  RESULTS
  447 patients were newly diagnosed with glaucoma. 171 (38.2 %) patients had primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG), while 143 (32 %) had primary angle-closure glaucoma (PACG). The average age of presentation of patients with POAG was 65.78 ± 9.1 years, while the average age for PACG patients was 54.6 ±12.8 years. 30 (21 %) patients with PACG had acute angle-closure on presentation, while 113 (79 %) had chronic angle closure glaucoma. 107 (75 %) of these patients with PACG had visual acuity of less than 3/60 (20/400) in the worse eye at presentation. The most common form of secondary glaucoma was lens-induced (5.3 %), followed by neovascular (3.2 %) and uveitic glaucoma (3.2 %).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most common glaucoma seen in a tertiary referral eye hospital of Nepal is primary open-angle glaucoma. Among the angle-closure glaucoma, chronic angle-closure is the most common. Lens-induced glaucoma is still the commonest cause of secondary glaucoma.
authors.affiliation: Nepal Glaucoma Eye Clinic, Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology, Kathmandu, Nepal. indurup@gmail.com
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Paudyal
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Thapa
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Paudyal
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gurung
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ruit
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001766:Blindness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D015812:Glaucoma, Angle-Closure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015355:Glaucoma, Neovascular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005902:Glaucoma, Open-Angle / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009390:Nepal / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014605:Uveitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*