Glaucoma - Primary open-angle management

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Description, Symptoms, Signs

See previous condition.

Prevalence

POAG accounts for approximately 14 per cent of blindness registrations in the UK, Australia and the US. In the population as a whole, it is uncommon. However, it has a prevalence of about 2.5 per cent in adults of European descent, and is the most common cause of blindness in the African American population. Moreover, of the glaucoma population, about half do not know that they have the disease.

Differential diagnosis

Secondary open-angle glaucomas (see Glaucoma - classification), optic discs with large physiological cupping, ocular hypertension, optic atrophy from chiasmal compression, ischaemic optic neuropathy. Conditions that manifest large optic cups or may have glaucoma-like visual field loss, such as optic disc coloboma, optic disc pits, myopia, optic nerve head drusen and branch arteriolar occlusion.