Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.03.1983, Page 93

The eye-depar'tment
at St. Joseph's
Hospital is the only
ophthalmic department
in Iceland with 14
hospital beds. Last
year were 400
admissions (children
not included) and 504
mjor eye-operations
were done.
The average nuniber of
glaucoma operations
are 75 a year for the
past 10 years. The
majority of patients
are in the age group
70-79 years.
The average number of
cataract operations
per year of people 40
years and older are
120 for the past 10
years. The majority
of the patients are
past 70 years of age.
Blindntx in Icelond 1910-1950 occording lo censuj regisirohcn
ond prejenl jtudy l.de» 1979 moemol viíuol ocuily ^60
Snellen Oeiler eye
Oofh seies
Fig. 5
An out-patient glaucoma
clinic has been associ-
ated with St. Joseph's
Hospital, Reykjavík
since 1973.
In spite of the fact
that the blindness
rate in Iceland has decreased a great deal among elderly people the past
decades we have to be on the alert and keep going to battle against the
potentially blinding diseases. We have already got the upper hand on glaucoma
but we are still able to lower the glaucoma blindness further with better
control and earlier diagnosis. About 700 glaucoma patients are under observ-
ation at the glaucoma clinic and approximately 150 glaucoma suspects.
Nobody knows how many of the increasing diabetic patients are going to lose
their sight in the future, but we hope the laser treatment we have recently
taken in use will keep the number to a minimum. At the moment we can in the
medical sense do very little for the most common visual impairment of old
people i.e. the senile macular degeneration. Those with the exudative type
of this disease we might be able to help with laser treatment or delay the
progress of the disease.
Finally I will point out that prevention of blindness is an important part
of the general health service of elderly people, and here in Iceland we
have seen the result of the preventive measures.
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