[Glaucoma in the Czech Republic]

The authors investigated the conditions for the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma in the Czech Republic using questionnaires dispatched to 88 departments. The total number of patients suffering from glaucoma is 50,000, the highest rate being in Prague and Moravia (à 9,000). In relation to the number of population the frequency is greatest in Prague (1 per 140 population) and lowest in Southern Bohemia (1 per 318). In 12 departments routine gonioscopic examinations are not made, in 30 departments applanation measurements of the intraocular pressure are not made. Statistical computed perimetry can be performed only in six departments. In 1989 about one tenth of the total number of 9,000 patients hospitalized on account of glaucoma were hospitalized on account of acute glaucoma. In that year 952 primary and 320 secondary glaucomas were operated, the greatest number in Prague and Eastern Bohemia. It is essential to improve the standard of ambulatory diagnostic and therapeutic care at the expense of hospital admissions.