The rates of blindness and of partial sight registration in glaucoma patients

Purpose To determine the extent of unregistered blind and partial sight visual loss amongst primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) patients in an outpatient clinic. Methods A 13 year follow-up study was carried out of all patients with POAG attending the outpatient clinics at the Leicester Royal Infirmary during the first 4 months of 1982. Results Ninety (35%) of 258 patients achieved eligibility for registration and 47 patients (18%) were registered, consisting of 39 who were eligible and 8 who were not. Fifty-seven per cent of eligible patients remained unregistered. Patients with visual loss due to visual acuity loss were much more likely to be registered than patients with either visual field loss (p < 0.001) or mixed visual acuity/visual field loss (FI < 0.001). All categories of eligible patients experienced a delay between eligibility and registration. This delay was much longer for the visual field loss patients (median delay 61.8 months). Patients with untreatable disease were more likely to be registered. The rates of registration are improving. Conclusion A large proportion of glaucoma patients who are eligible for registration as either blind or partially sighted remain unregistered. Those who are registered often experience prolonged delays before becoming registered.