Prevalence of exfoliation syndrome in the Japanese.

We evaluated the prevalence of exfoliation syndrome (ES) with or without glaucoma seen in our Department over a 32-month period. We could identify a total of 59 patients with ES, 30 males and 29 females. All the cases were aged 50 years or more except one case, with the peak in the 8th decade. The ages of the cases averaged 70.0 +/- 8.34 years. ES was present unilaterally in 47 cases (85%) and bilaterally in 12 (15%). Glaucoma was associated in 37 out of the 59 cases of ES (63%). Males with ES seemed to be more prone to develop glaucoma than females. We observed 96 non-ES cases with primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) during the same period. The ages of the cases averaged 59.6 +/- 15.4 years. Our survey indicates that ES is not an uncommon occurrence among the Japanese population served by our Department. The incidence of ES as a whole approximates three-fifths of that of POAG.