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Symptoms of glaucoma vary during pregnancy
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The course of glaucoma is variable in pregnant women, and close monitoring may be needed to prevent vision loss, a study found.
Cynthia L. Grosskreutz, MD, PhD, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School retrospectively studied 28 eyes of 15 pregnant women with glaucoma. They found that 16 of 28 eyes (57.1%) maintained stable IOPs and suffered no vision loss. In five eyes (17.9%), however, visual field loss progressed while IOP remained stable or increased, and in five eyes IOP increased without visual field loss.
Glaucoma medications were used by 13 of 15 patients. Data from two patients (7.1%) were inconclusive because of medication noncompliance. The authors noted that women may be reluctant to take medications during pregnancy, and they urged physicians to discuss the possibility of surgical treatments with women considering pregnancy.
"With proper planning, surgical treatments such as laser trabeculoplasty can be offered in anticipation of decreasing or stopping medication use during pregnancy," the authors said.
The study is published in the August issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.