Patients’ preference for different tonometers in a tertiary ophthalmic clinic

Background: Intraocular pressure measurement is a routine examination in the Eye clinic, and it is essential in the management of glaucoma. Aim: To assess the preference of patients for three different types of tonometers used at the Eye clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Methods: This was a comparative cross-sectional study of adults 18 years and older. Their intraocular pressure (IOP) was measured using Perkins applanation tonometer (PAT), Pulsair non-contact tonometer (NCT) and iCare rebound tonometer (RBT). Their preferred tonometer and reasons for their choices were elicited. Results: There were 69 (75%) male and 23 (25%) female respondents in the study. The mean age was 38.84±13.34 years, with an age range of 18 - 71years. Majority of participants preferred the NCT (43.4%, 40), followed by PAT (31.5%, 29 while the RBT (20.7%,19) was the least favourite instrument and 4.4% of participants had no preference. There was a statistically significant difference in the preference of the three tonometers, P value = 0.004 (<0.05). With the iCare, most participants preferred it for the following reasons - no pain or discomfort (n=5; 26.3% each) and no eye drops (26.3%). With the NCT, the reasons given were speed (n=7; 17.5%), no pain (37.5%) and no eye drops (10%). For the PAT, the commonest reason for preference was no pain (65.5%). Conclusion: Majority of the participants in this study preferred the NCT, followed by the PAT and RBT tonometers respectively.