Causes Of Low Vision In Pediatric Ophthalmology

M. Barca , P. Menéres , and M. Ribeiro
Santo António Hospital,
Porto,
PORTUGAL

Purpose

The authors studied the pediatric population of the low vision department. The purpose of this paper was to find the causes of low vision in children.

The clinical files of every patient under 18 years who were at our department in the last 5 years were retrospectively reviewed.

We studied 167 cases. The main problems were:
Optic neuropathy (24; AV=0,17);
Congenital cataracts (16, AV=0,4);
Pigmentar retinopathy (15; AV=0,17);
Congenital glaucoma (11; AV=10);
Albinism (10; AV= 0,1)
47 children had vision below 1/10 in both eyes.

Children can really be helped by low vision care. Some causes of low vision in our population could be prevented and treated earlier.