Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of the Patients Evaluated for the First Time in the Glaucoma Service at Hospital del Estado de México

Abstract

<strong>Objective:</strong> To describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients evaluated for the first time in the Glaucoma Service of the Mexiquense Specialized Hospital of Visual Health, in Naucalpan State of Mexico. <strong>Methodology:</strong> An observational cross-sectional study was carried out, in which all the patients of first contact in the glaucoma department were included during the period from August 2015 to July 2016. Subsequently, the data collected with Excel 2011 program were analyzed, performing for the quantitative variables all measures of central tendency and dispersion and for the qualitative variables frequencies and percentages. <strong>Results:</strong> Of 17,206 first contact consultations, 1,613 subjects were referred to the glaucoma service and in 569 cases the diagnosis of some type of glaucoma was integrated, representing 3.30 % of the population. 58 % of the subjects belonged to the female sex (n = 383). The average age was 62.9 years (SD ± 14.17, CI 95: 61.73-64.07). The following diagnoses were assigned during the initial assessment: primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) 274 subjects (48.15 %), glaucoma suspects 180 subjects (31.63 %), closed angle glaucoma (CAG) 43 subjects (7.46 % ), neovascular glaucoma (NVG) 32 subjects (5.62 %), and 40 subjects with other types of glaucoma representing 7.02 %. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> In this study it was found that the type of glaucoma with the highest incidence was POAG, followed by patients suspected of glaucoma, being more frequent in females