Clinical and pathological features of chronic glaucoma in north-east Ghana

Of 34 consecutive patients with chronic glaucoma seen in north-east Ghana, 22 (65%) were male and seven (21%) were aged under 40 years. Only 17% of eyes had a visual acuity better than 6/18 at presentation. Sixteen of 23 patients who underwent gonioscopy had PAS of which 13 had positive skin snips for onchocerciasis, compared with two out of seven patients with positive skin snips who had open angle glaucoma (p = 0.003). Of 22 trabecular meshworks examined by light microscopy ten (45%) showed marked melanin pigmentation which was more common in younger patients but did not correlate with onchocerciasis infection.