Global rates of glaucoma surgery.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Public Health
• Health Economics

Background:

• Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide.
• Accurate data on glaucoma surgery rates are crucial for understanding disease management and resource allocation.
• Existing global data on glaucoma surgical procedures are limited and fragmented.

Purpose of the Study:

• To estimate global rates of glaucoma surgery.
• To introduce and evaluate the Glaucoma Surgical Rate (GSR) metric.
• To explore correlations between GSR and socioeconomic factors.

Main Methods:

• Contacted national glaucoma and ophthalmology societies, NGOs, and leading ophthalmologists globally.
• Collected glaucoma surgery data for the past five years, assigning evidence levels (I-III).
• Defined Glaucoma Surgical Rate (GSR) as annual total glaucoma surgeries per million population and performed regression analysis.

Main Results:

• Data were obtained from 38 countries representing 1.723 billion people.
• The average Glaucoma Surgical Rate (GSR) was 139.2 surgeries per million population.
• Positive correlations were found between GSR and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the number of ophthalmologists.

Conclusions:

• There is a significant paucity of data on glaucoma surgery rates, particularly in developing countries.
• The Glaucoma Surgical Rate (GSR) metric shows potential for healthcare resource allocation.
• GSR can assist in planning and monitoring public health interventions for glaucoma management.