European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Aims: To identify the most common cause and the frequent stage of presentation in patients with neovascular glaucoma.
Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology, Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India, for 18 months. Total 130 eyes of 120 patients who underwent ophthalmological examination and diagnosed as having neovascular glaucoma were include in this study. All patients underwent thorough ocular examination i.e., visual acuity, slit lamp bio-microscopy, intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement by Goldmann applanation tonometry, gonioscopy with Posner 4 mirror indirect gonioscope and dilated fundus examination with +90 D lens.
Results: The present study was conducted in 130 eyes of 120 patients out of which 110 patients had either eye involvement and 10 patients had both eyes involvement. All Patients were aged between 15-71 years with a mean of 52.84 ± 11.9 years. Out of 120 patients, 95(79.17%) were males and 25(20.83%) were females. On gonioscopic examination, most of the cases i.e., 68(56.67%) had only rubeosis iridis without involvement of the angle, 26(20%), 16 (12.31%), 9(6.92%), 7(5.38%) had neovascularization of angle (NVA) in one, two, three and four quadrants respectively. Out of 130 eyes, 69(53.07%) had diabetic retinopathy in variable severity, 16(12.31%) had inflammatory etiology, 12(9.23%) had retinal vein occlusion and 14(10.77%) had glaucoma (PXG and absolute glaucoma). There is no statistically significant difference between the mean IOP in rubeosis iridis stage and open angle stage (P= 0.779). 77 eyes (59.23%) had IOP < 30 mm of Hg of which 68 were in rubeosis iridis stage. 53 eyes (40.77%) had IOP > 30 mm of Hg of which 39 were in angle closure stage. IOP < 30mm of Hg was found mostly in rubeosis iridis stage and> 30 mm of Hg was found in angle closure stage.
Conclusion: In the present study, it was found that Proliferative diabetic retinopathy is the most common cause and rubeosis iridis is the most common stage of presentation in NVG.