The practice guideline 'Refraction errors' from the Dutch College of General Practitioners: response from the perspective of general medicine
Wouts, W.J.M.
Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde 146(38): 1769-1770
2002
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-2162 PMID: 12369435 Document Number: 543437
The objective of the practice guideline 'Refraction errors' from the Dutch College of General Practitioners is to help the general practitioner to deal with patients presenting with gradual loss of vision. The number of ophthalmologists in the Netherlands is small and general practitioners need to differentiate between acute and non-acute ocular conditions. For the first time diagnostic refraction is included as a means of differentiating between a refraction disorder and other ocular pathology. The anamnesis section in the guideline is meagre and the use of a stenopeic opening and the subject of presbyopia are insufficiently emphasised. The underlying assumption that general practitioners are insufficiently capable of carrying out an ophthalmological investigation such as ophthalmoscopy needs to be revised.