Priyanka Sudhakar¹ and Meena G Menon²*

¹Glaucoma Fellow, Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
²Head of Glaucoma Services, Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India

*Corresponding Author: Meena G Menon, Head of Glaucoma Services, Sankara Eye Hospital, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Received: April 28, 2021; Published: May 26, 2021

Abstract

Background: Since quality of life depends fairly on individual ability to perform everyday tasks, a better understanding of the different types of visual disability that patients with glaucoma encounter, becomes almost imperative to the clinician in tailoring their approach to delivering superior visual care.

Aims: To analyse effect of glaucoma on parameters of visual function, across 3 grades of disease severity and to evaluate efficacy of assistive devices in functionally rehabilitating these individuals.

Settings and Design: Observational 3 group cohort clinical assessment study of 120 eyes of 60 patients diagnosed with glaucoma, between August 2017 and January 2018.

Materials and Methods: The disease severity of these eyes were graded. Visual function was subjectively assessed with a questionnaire and objectively by colour vision, contrast sensitivity, visual field, binocular function. Data thus obtained was analysed against each grade of disease severity. Based on subjective assessment; assistive devices (magnifying spectacles, magnifiers, illumination devices, Fresnel prisms) were tried and their effectiveness analysed.

Statistical Analysis: Paired and unpaired t test and ANOVA.

Results: 61 patients (40 males and 21 females), with mean age of 60.43 years were enrolled. Majority (69.16%) had Primary open angle glaucoma. Most of them had moderate to severe (29.6%) and severe (27.7%) glaucoma. While there was no significant difference among groups in terms of colour vision loss, significant loss of contrast sensitivity in 65.7% and stereoacuity in 66.6% was observed. Of the 19 eyes evaluated for low vision, 14 of them were given trial of magnifiers and illumination devices for reading difficulty, other 5 were given trial of Fresnel prism. All of them improved with the respective devices.

Conclusion: Glaucoma affects colour vision, contrast sensitivity and stereopsis, in addition to visual field and acuity, thus contributing to poor quality of vision. One cannot ignore the possibility of including evaluation of these parameters of visual function as part of the routine glaucoma work-up, for a holistic approach to visual care Fresnel prism as a potential visual aid, subject to further study.

Keywords: Visual Function; Fresnel Prism; Assistive Devices; QoL

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Citation

Citation: Priyanka Sudhakar and Meena G Menon. “Analysis of Visual Function and the Effectiveness of Assistive Devices in a Glaucoma Cohort at a Tertiary Eye Hospital".Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 4.6 (2021): 76-82.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Priyanka Sudhakar and Meena G Menon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.