Over-diagnosis and over-treatment in Ophthalmology: A review of the literature

Arch Soc Esp Oftalmol. 2016 Nov;91(11):526-534. doi: 10.1016/j.oftal.2016.03.014. Epub 2016 Apr 25.
[Article in English, Spanish]

Abstract

Objective: To determine if the pernicious effects of over-diagnosis and over-treatment have been studied in the most common ocular diseases.

Material and methods: Bibliographic search conducted in PubMed.

Results: The search algorithm used retrieved 29 articles related with the topic. Most of them address the issue tangentially. Only 4 of them address the problem directly. One of them focuses on the problem of over-diagnosis and over-treatment in idiopathic intracranial hypertension. The remaining 3 focus on the problem of over-diagnosis and over-treatment in glaucoma.

Conclusion: The ophthalmology community has thought very little about the detrimental effects of over-diagnosis and over-treatment.

Keywords: Chronic glaucoma; Degeneraciones retinianas; Glaucoma crónico; Hipertensión intracraneal benigna; Idiopathic intracranial hypertension; Keratoconus; Overdiagnosis; Overtreatment; Queratocono; Retinal degeneration; Sobrediagnóstico; Sobretratamiento.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Eye Diseases / drug therapy
  • Eye Diseases / therapy
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Medical Overuse / statistics & numerical data*
  • Mortality
  • Ophthalmology / methods*
  • PubMed