Beyond Intraocular Pressure: Visual Functioning and Quality of Life in Primary Congenital Glaucoma and Secondary...

To compare the visual functioning (VF) and vision-related QoL (VRQoL) of children 8-18 years old treated for primary congenital glaucoma (PCG) and secondary childhood glaucoma.

Cross-sectional study.

A total of 309 children 8-18 years old treated for PCG and secondary childhood glaucoma between 2000 and 2010 by a single pediatric glaucoma specialist were prospectively enrolled at LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India. Children completed 2 questionnaires, the LV Prasad Functional Vision Questionnaire-II (LVP-FVQ-II), and the Impact of Vision Impairment-Children (IVI-C) questionnaire. Rasch-calibrated scores from both these questionnaires were used to compare the VF and VFQoL between the 2 groups.

Mean ages of the children were 12.2 and 12.6 years in the PCG (53%, median age at diagnosis = 5 months) and secondary glaucoma groups (47%, median age at diagnosis = 3 years), respectively. A majority (80%) of children had bilateral glaucoma and underwent filtering surgery (83%). Mean better eye logMAR visual acuity (VA) was comparable between PCG and secondary childhood glaucoma groups (0.49 vs 0.52, respectively; P = 0.59). Children with PCG reported significantly better VF and VRQoL than secondary childhood glaucoma patients. Unadjusted and adjusted childhood glaucoma group comparisons revealed secondary childhood glaucoma to be associated with worse VF and VRQoL compared to PCG (difference for VF, -0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], -1.34 to 0.31; P = 0.002; 0.39; 95% CI, 0.16-0.62; P = 0.001 for VRQoL).

Results show that children with treated PCG experience significantly better VF and VRQoL than those with secondary childhood glaucoma, despite comparable VA and IOP.