■ The risk of long-term glaucoma progression or treatment advancing to incisional surgery increases for patients who instill drops ineffectively, a study reported in the Journal of Glaucoma revealed. Patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension were filmed instilling drops and then graded as effective or ineffective depending on whether the patient successfully got at least 1 drop on the correct ocular surface. Glaucomatous progression was retrospectively defined by Rajanala and colleagues as retinal nerve fiber layer thinning measured by either optical coherence tomography, visual field progression, or need for incisional glaucoma surgery.

Data were analyzed for 101 patients; of this group, 87.1% effectively instilled drops at baseline. During the mean follow-up of 5.1 years, 72.3% of patients either had progression or incisional surgery. A significantly higher proportion of patients in the ineffective group met the criteria for progression or underwent incisional surgery, the authors concluded. (P=.017, Fisher exact test). GP