Chabane P Amisse1*, J Hoffman1,2 and William Makupa1,2
1Ophthalmology Department, KCMU-College, Moshi, Tanzania
2International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, London, United Kingdom
*Corresponding Author: Chabane P Amisse, Ophthalmology Department, KCMU-College, Moshi, Tanzania.
Received: March 07, 2020; Published: April 30, 2020
Purpose: To determine the etiology, low vision therapy outcomes and predictors for good clinical outcomes among patients attending low vision therapy at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre.
Methodology: We report a cross-sectional, hospital-based study conducted between September 2018 and June 2019 at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in northern Tanzania. All patients who attended low vision clinic from 2015 to 2018 were reviewed. Excluded were those who had best corrected visual acuity equal to or better than 6/18, patients younger than 5 years and those with no documentation of diagnosis age and/or sex. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to assess the visual acuity improvement and logistic regression to find the predictors for good visual outcome.
Results: 408 patients were included in this study, of which 208/408 (51%) were adults. The 3 leading causes of permanent visual impairment in adults were diabetic retinopathy, 63/208 (30.3%); glaucoma, 21/208 (10.1%); and corneal scarring, 16/208 (7.7%). In children they were oculocutaneous albinism, 80/200 (40%); amblyopia, 20/200 (10%); and glaucoma, 15/200 (7.5%). Good low vision therapy outcome was noted in 151/175 (86.3%) of patients who had assessment for distance therapy and 113/157 (72%) in those assessed for near low vision therapy. The presenting best corrected visual acuity (distance or near) and the age of the patients were found to be significant predictors for good visual outcome (p < 0.001, for both).
Conclusion: In this study low vision therapy often resulted in good visual outcome. Despite this, visual outcome was dependent on the presenting best corrected visual acuity, meaning those most in need tend not respond. Most causes of permanent visual impairment in our setting are preventable or curable if detected early. This is another reminder that prevention is better than cure.
Keywords: Visual Impairment; Tanzania; Blindness
Citation: Chabane P Amisse., et al. “The Etiology, Therapy Outcomes and Clinical Predictors among Patients Attending Low Vision Clinics at a tertiary Ophthalmic Referral Center in Tanzania”. Acta Scientific Ophthalmology 3.5 (2020): 83-88.
Copyright: © 2020 Chabane P Amisse., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.