[Observational survey on the use of dual therapy in ocular hypertension or glaucoma treatment]

To ascertain why ophthalmologists shift therapy to a fixed-combination or non-fixed-combination drug therapy.

A prospective multicenter observational study was conducted among French ophthalmologists working in private or mixed practice. The study included adult patients with open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension, treated with monotherapy or dual therapy and needing to modify their initial treatment. The patients had to fill out a self-questionnaire 15 days after the change in therapy, evaluating the compliance and assessment of the new treatment.

The analysis was made on 775 questionnaires filled out by ophthalmologists between March 1st and July 31st 2003 on 5734 patients. The mean age was 66.4+/-12.4 years and women represented 53.6% of the patients. The diagnosis had been made, on average, 7.5+/-7.3 years before. The mean initial intraocular pressure under treatment was 19.8+/-4.1 mmHg in both eyes. Initially, 58.2% of the patients had monotherapy, 40.4% dual therapy and 1.4% triple therapy. The main reasons for shifting therapy were "high intraocular pressure under treatment" for 63.5% of the patients and "simplification of the treatment" for 39.1% of the patients (several reasons per patient were accepted). Most of the patients were satisfied with their new therapy (71%), which in most cases was a fixed-combination therapy (95.2%).

This study has shown that the use of at least two active principles is a common practice in the treatment of glaucoma and ocular hypertension. An additive therapy is given in order to better control the intraocular pressure, mainly with a fixed combination.