Data from the Brazilian Council of Ophthalmology indicate that, in the last five years, professionals from the Unified Health System (SUS) removed at least 1.3 million Brazilians from the risk of blindness due to glaucoma. The disease is the biggest preventable cause of blindness in the world. According to the entity, between 2019 and 2022, clinical and surgical treatments against the disease benefited, on average, 289 thousand patients from all Brazilian regions annually.
The Northeast accumulates the highest volume of procedures in the period, with an annual average of 143.3 thousand people assisted with at least one of the two therapeutic approaches. They appear next, with the following averages: Southeast, with 112,500 cases; South, with 19.9 thousand; North, with 12.3 thousand; and Midwest, with almost 2,000 patients treated.
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According to the survey, at the top of the ranking of productivity are the following averages per year: Minas Gerais, with 70.5 thousand patients benefited; Bahia (56.9 thousand cases); São Paulo (36 thousand); Pernambuco (32.8 thousand); and Paraíba (18 thousand).
Surgeries
“In addition to clinical treatments, patients with glaucoma, with greater impairment, were also able to resort to different types of surgery through the SUS in an attempt to slow down the progression of the disease. In the analyzed period, each day, 45 people who struggle with glaucoma reduced their risk of blindness in this way”, highlighted the council.
The data also show that the SUS registers a total of 68,250 surgeries for glaucoma. In 2022, there were 19,592 interventions, almost 20% more than what was performed in 2021. In 2020, the high point of the emergency due to the covid-19 pandemic, the volume of procedures of this type fell 25% compared to the previous year .
The disease
According to the advice, glaucoma arises as a result of increased intraocular pressure, which causes loss of vision by the gradual destruction of the optic nerve, a structure that conducts images from the retina to the brain. “Depending on the patient’s condition, clinical and/or surgical interventions can halt the progression of the disease, but they are not capable of recovering the portion of vision that has already been compromised.”
Studies estimate that 1 to 2% of the world’s population live with glaucoma. Projections indicate that 111.8 million people may suffer from the disease by 2040 worldwide.
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