Visual and ocular morbidity in severe open-globe injuries presenting to a regional eye centre in New Zealand.

IMPORTANCE: Open-globe injuries (OGI) are a leading cause of monocular blindness world-wide with considerable cost to the individual and society. BACKGROUND: To characterize the epidemiology, severity and outcomes of OGI treated at a major ophthalmology centre in New Zealand. DESIGN: Retrospective study. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 385 eyes of 381 patients over a 10-year period. METHODS: Eligible patients were identified using diagnosis and surgery codes on hospital discharge summaries. Clinical notes were reviewed to determine patient demographics, injury details, treatments and outcomes. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Complications of injury, visual acuity at 3 months and final follow-up, and final status of the eye. RESULTS: The estimated annual incidence of OGI was 2.8 per 100 000. Working-age males predominated but age at injury ranged from 9 months to 90 years. Maori and Pacific peoples were over-represented. Injuries were severe with 58.7% presenting with vision of hand movements or worse. Penetrating injuries (56.4%) were most common, followed by globe ruptures (35.6%). Major complications included retinal detachment (15.8%), enucleation/evisceration (9.1%), phthisis bulbi (9.9%), endophthalmitis (2.6%) and sympathetic ophthalmia (0.26%). Despite the injury severity, 46% of eyes achieved final BCVA of ≥6/12. The Ocular Trauma Score (OTS) was a useful prognostic tool for stratifying severity of injury and predicting visual outcome (Fisher's exact test P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: The incidence and severity of OGI in NZ are comparable to global statistics. Surgical repair can effectively recover vision, predicted well by the OTS. We identified at-risk groups to target with education and prevention strategies.

Virtual glaucoma clinics: patient acceptance and quality of patient education compared to standard clinics.

PURPOSE: Virtual glaucoma clinics allow rapid, reliable patient assessment but the service should be acceptable to patients and concordance with treatment needs to be maintained with adequate patient education. This study compares experiences and understanding of patients reviewed via the virtual clinic versus the standard clinic by way of an extended patient satisfaction questionnaire (PSQ). PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred PSQs were given to consecutive patients attending glaucoma clinics in October 2013. All 135 patients reviewed via the virtual clinic from April 2013 until August 2013 were sent postal PSQs in September 2013. Data were obtained for demographics, understanding of glaucoma, their condition, satisfaction with their experience, and quality of information. Responses were analyzed in conjunction with the clinical records. RESULTS: Eighty-five percent of clinic patients and 63% of virtual clinic patients responded to the PSQ. The mean satisfaction score was over 4.3/5 in all areas surveyed. Virtual clinic patients' understanding of their condition was very good, with 95% correctly identifying their diagnosis as glaucoma, 83% as ocular hypertension and 78% as suspects. There was no evidence to support inferior knowledge or self-perceived understanding compared to standard clinic patients. Follow-up patients knew more about glaucoma than new patients. Over 95% of patients found our information leaflet useful. Forty percent of patients sought additional information but less than 20% used the internet for this. CONCLUSION: A substantial proportion of glaucoma pathway patients may be seen by non-medical staff supervised by glaucoma specialists via virtual clinics. Patients are accepting of this format, reporting high levels of satisfaction and non-inferior knowledge to those seen in standard clinics.