COMPARISON OF PSEUDOEXFOLIATION GLAUCOMA AND PRIMARY OPEN ANGLE GLAUCOMA:INITIAL EXAMINATION AND PROGNOSIS OF THE ADVANCED AND FELLOW EYES

N. Yüksel, V. Karabaşю, Y. Cağlar and Ő. Keskin

Department of Ophthalmology,Kocaeli University, School of Medicine, Turkey

102 newly diagnosed patients with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) and those 68 patients with pseudoexfoliation glaucoma (PXG) were evaluated. The first examination findings,  and prognosis for either advanced eyes or fellow eyes were compared. When evaluating the advanced eyes of the two groups, the  visual acuity loss, the   vertical cup-to-disc ratio, the visual field loss, the frequency of cataract in the patients with PXG were significantly higher than those of patients with POAG. Trabeculectomy  as an initial treatment was indicated in the 12.7 % of  the patients with POAG and 29,4 % of those with PXG (p<0.05). 14.6% patients with POAG versus  41.6% patients with PXG required surgery during the follow-up period. The duration of antiglaucomatous therapy before surgery in the PXG  was shorter than that of the POAG  (p<0.05). When evaluating the fellow eyes of the patients with POAG and the patients with PXG, the frequencies  of  glaucoma were 93,2 % and 71,6 % , respectively. There was no significant difference according to the criteriae mentioned above except for the  visual acuity and the frequency of cataract. Surgery was required more frequently in the PXG (56.2%) than that of POAG(15.7%)( p<0,001) during the follow-up period (18.1±8.5,22.2±9.9 mounts, respectively)  There are significant differences in initial findings of the advanced eyes, distinguish PXG from POAG,  in contrast to the fellow eyes. The closely monitoring of both eyes in the patients with PXG is necessary.