SUMMARY
Purpose To determine differences in prevalence of angle closure disease (ACD) in a glaucoma department of an ophthalmology teaching hospital before and after strategies promoting gonioscopy were implemented. To characterize patients with angle closure disease and also when divided by Foster classification in a heterogeneous Latin American population. Study design Retrospective, observational, case-control study. Material and methods We reviewed every electronic medical record from July 2010 and July 2013 from the glaucoma department at our institution. Prevalence was obtained from the diagnosis of electronic medical records and we characterized patients with general ACD and also when dividing them according to Foster ACD classification Results: We reviewed 2112 medical records from July 2010 and 2549 medical records from 2013. Angle closure disease prevalence went from 7.29% (n=154) in 2010 to 20.36% (n=519) in 2013. Prevalence of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) decreased from 23.20% to 10.84% in the same period of time. Angle closure disease characterization revealed that women are the most affected gender Conclusions: Promoting the performance of a standardized and supervised gonioscopy to all patients of a glaucoma department in an ophthalmology teaching hospital, resulted in 1.79 times more diagnosis of angle closure compared to a time when it was not compulsory. Characterization showed that angle closure patients tend to be women, with decreasing low hyperopia and normal office intraocular pressures, especially when treated with antiglaucoma medications.