Prevalence of Exfoliative Glaucoma among Kashmiri Population: A Hospital Based Study

Background: The Prevalence of exfiolative glaucoma has shown extensive variation all over world ranging from 0 to 50%. Objective: To know the prevalence of exfoliative glaucoma in Kashmir. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2006 to January 2007 on 300 patients with documented raised intra ocular pressure (IOP), glaucomatous changes in the fundus and open angle of anterior chamber. Results: The study included 236 males and 64 females. Out of 300 patients, 115 had exfiolative glaucoma and among those left eye was involved in 47 patients, right eye in 31 and 37 had bilateral involvement.The patients above 60 years of age were found to have this condition more frequently as compared to those below 60 years of age. Occupation of patients had a strong association with this condition, as the disorder was seen more commonly in patients engaged in outdoor activites.The patients with exfiolative glaucoma were found to be having less Visual acuity; a higher IOP at presentation and a more severe and early optic nerve head involvement as compared to those with open angle glaucoma. Conclusions: The study reveals that prevalence of exfoliative glaucoma as seen in our OPD based cross sectional study was found to be 38.3%. This prevalence was high as compared to prevalence studies conducted in southern parts of the country and low as compared to the studies conducted in the Scandinavian countries. The difference in the prevalence of the condition was probably inpart related to the differences in the climatic conditions, ethnic origin and in part related to genetic factors of the studied population.