Læknablaðið - 01.04.1954, Qupperneq 20

78
LÆKNABLAÖIÐ
ericcin countries. Tlie blindri-
ess rate is somewhat higher
among males (56 percent) than
among females (hh percent).
Tlxe blindness rate in the rural
districts is about tiuice as high
as in the towns. The rate of
blindness in the age groups
under 60 years is not higher
than in other countries with
far lower blindrate, [. i. Eng-
land and U.S.A. and in some
instances even lower. However,
in the age group 60 years and
over the rates are especially
high. This shows a marked
difference between Icelanders
and other nations. In the age
gronp 70 to 79 years, 19 per
tousand are blind, from HO to
H9 every lOth person and in
the age group 90 years and
over, al least every fourth per-
son is blind, as shown in table
1, last column.
Of the !d)h blind, I have per-
sonally examined 1h3 or about
33 percent of all ilxe cases.
About one third of the cases
were totally blind and about
two third were blind according
to Trousseau’s definition of
blindness. The maximal vision
was %() Snellen with the best
correction.
Blindness caused by glau-
coma is the most [requcnt
cause of blindness. Of the ana-
lysed cases 75 (h5 males and
30 females) had become blind
from glaucoma or well over
50 percent of the persons exa-
mined.
It is estimated that about 60
percent of all the blind have
lost their vision from this dise-
ase. Blindness from glaucoma
is exclusively met with in the
highest age groups mostly aft-
er 70 years of age. The main
reason for this high rate of
blindness is, that the glau-
coma patients come too late
for treatment.
I have therefore suggested
to start a systematic search for
glaucoma cases among people
over 60 years of age. fíy these
means glaucoma ought in most
cases to be detected at the early
stages and the treatment thus
be made more easy, whereupon
it might be expected that after
some years the blindness rate
in Iceland will have decreased
considerably. The type of glau-
coma responsible for the blind-
ness is nearly exclusively
primary chronic simple glau-
coma of the wide angle hgpe.
Blindness caused by other
diseases are listed in table 7.
Heimildarrit.
1. Mannslátabók II. Gefin út af
skrifstofu landlæknis, 1953.
2. J. C. Holst: The occurrence of
blindness in Norway. American
Journal of Ophthalmology. Au-
gust 1952.
3. Arnold Sorsby: The causes of
blindness in England and
Wales. Medical Research Coun-
cil, Memorandum No. 24. 1950.