Evaluation Of The Causes Of Blindness In Patients Admitted To The Health Board Of A Hospital Servicing Souteastern Anatolia

Year 2019, Volume: 46 Issue: 2, 209 - 214, 11.06.2019

Seyfettin Erdem

https://doi.org/10.5798/dicletip.539931

Abstract

Objective:
We aimed to reveal the causes of blindness in patients who applied to a health
board of our hospital which provides service to a socioeconomically depressed
region.

Methods: We
retrospectively reviewed the records of 314 patients who were blind in at least
one eye were recorded among 2214 patients who were referred to our hospital's
health board between February 2016 and January 2018 for evaluation by the
health board to receive a disability report from our hospital.

Results: In
this study, we determined that 185 (58.9%) patients were female, 129 (41.1%) patients
were male and the mean patient age was 70.84 ± 19.15 years. The most common
causes of blindness were cataract seen in 104 (33.1%) patients, phthisis eyes
in 53 (16.9%) patients, optic atrophy in 40 (12.7%) patients, corneal opacities
in 35 (11.1%) patients and diabetic retinopathy in 20 (6.4%) patients.

Conclusions:
Both in our study and in other studies conducted in our region, preventable
blindness such as cataract, phthisis and corneal opacity have been detected at
high rates. Therefore we believe that more awareness and effort may be needed
to reduce such preventable blindness in our region.

Keywords

Blindness, Cataract

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