Do glaucoma patients use eye drops correctly?

To assess how glaucoma patients use their topical medications.

142 subjects were tested before an examiner as to how they used their eyedrops.

Fifty-six patients (39.4%) used one drop. The number of drops instilled increased with age. The tip of the bottle touched the ocular surface in 78 (54.9%). The proportion of patients whose bottle came into contact with the eye or periocular tissues increased with age. Only four patients (2.8%) closed the treated eye and compressed the medial angle after applying the medication.

It is important that ophthalmologists instruct their patients on the correct manner of applying topical medication so that the patients can themselves administer the medicine precisely. Such instruction will improve the patients' compliance and quality of life during therapy for glaucoma.