Retrospective Analysis of Telematic Glaucoma Clinic as A Consequence of COVID-19 Pandemic

Purpose: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, glaucoma clinics had to adapt to meet the needs of patients with this chronic disease. New technologies allowed us to monitor some of these patients in a telematic way. Methods: We retrospectively analysed patients with open-angle glaucoma who were visited between September 2021 and March 2022 and compared Visual Field (VF) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) parameters according to whether they had telematic or only face-to-face controls. All patients were stratified in each group according to glaucoma severity. Results: A total of 204 eyes from 118 patients were included in the analysis, with 100 in the group with only face-to-face controls (group 1/FTF) and 104 in the group with some telematic controls (group 2/HG). In group 2/HG, an average of 3.37 face-to-face visits and 1.27 telematic visits were made, while group 1/FTF had 4.4 face-to-face visits. There was no significant difference in visual acuity, OCT or VF parameters between the prepandemic period and 2 years after the visit. Regarding glaucoma severity, there were more patients with severe glaucoma in group 1/FTF and more patients with mild glaucoma in group 2/HG. Conclusion: Telematic management of the glaucoma clinic, with the use of appropriate tools, can be useful for maintaining the quality of care during periods of face-to-face consultation saturation or when face-to-face control is completely impossible.