Background: The importance of the four most commonly occurring vision-threatening diseases, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and cataract in ophthalmological practices has changed due to demographic developments, medical progress and transference of inpatient treatment to the outpatient area of private practice.
Methods: In the fourth quarter year of 2010 a survey of 15,125 patients (approximately 10%) from 96 private ophthalmology practices (mean 149 patients per ophthalmologist, range 45-376) was carried out. The results for the four most commonly occurring vision-threatening diseases were compared with the result from a previous survey carried out for the fourth quarter year of 1997.
Results: Compared to 1997 there was an increase in the age-adjusted proportion of examinations in 2010 for cataracts by 29 %, for glaucoma by 21 %, for diabetic retinopathy by 39 % and for vitreoretinal diseases by 19 %. The number of AMD examinations in the age group over 70 years old showed a particularly high increase.
Conclusions: The number of patients examined for the four most commonly occurring vision-threatening diseases increased from 1997 to 2010 not only in absolute numbers but also in relation to age. In the future financial and personnel resources must be made available for the early and guidelines-conform detection, diagnostics and therapy by ophthalmologists.