Detection of Visual Field Loss Progression in Glaucoma: An Overview and Food for Thought

The damage to the visual field is the main outcome of glaucoma. Basically, there are two different approaches to establish the rate of the functional loss in this clinical condition: event-based analysis and trend-based analysis. The event-based analysis, that relies on the occurrence of pre-established events to detect the progression of the visual field damage, cannot quantify the decay rate of sensitivity. In turn, the trend-based analysis, that aims to measure the rate of progression according to linear regression models, requires a long follow-up. Despite considerable effort, there is still no consensus on the optimal procedure, and a gold standard is still missing. This paper provides a quick overview of the topic as a tribute to the researchers engaged in this field.