Setting priorities for comparative effectiveness research on management of primary angle closure: a survey of Asia-Pacific clinicians.

PURPOSE: To set priorities for new systematic reviews (SRs) and randomized clinical trials on the management of primary angle closure (PAC) using clinical practice guidelines and a survey of Asia-Pacific clinicians.
METHODS: We restated the American Academy of Ophthalmology's Preferred Practice Patterns recommendations for management of PAC into answerable clinical questions. We asked participants at the Asia-Pacific Joint Glaucoma Congress 2010 in Taipei to rate the importance of having an answer to each question for providing effective patient care, using a Likert-type scale and scoring from 0 (not important at all) to 10 (highly important). We identified relevant SRs and mapped the evidence to clinical questions to identify evidence gaps.
RESULTS: We generated 42 clinical questions. One hundred seventy-five individuals agreed to participate in the survey, 132 responded (75.4% response rate) and 96 completed the questionnaire (54.9% usable response rate). Questions rated important include laser iridotomy for the prevention of angle closure in primary angle-closure suspects, further therapies in eyes with plateau iris syndrome after laser iridotomy, and evaluation of the fellow eye in acute angle-closure patients for improving prognosis. Up-to-date and conclusive SR evidence was not available for any of the 42 clinical questions.
CONCLUSIONS: We identified high priority clinical questions on the management of PAC, none of which had reliable SR evidence available. New SRs and randomized clinical trials can be initiated to address these evidence gaps.