Childhood sight impairment: a 10-year picture

Abstract

Introduction Registering a child as visually impaired is a potentially traumatic, but necessary, milestone in paediatric ophthalmology. Registration enables the provision of services essential to maximise the child's potential. Purpose This study was carried out to investigate the changes over a 10-year period in the rates of registration of childhood blindness at a tertiary paediatric ophthalmology department. Particular attention was given to diagnosis, whether the disease was preventable, time to registration, age at registration, and the socioeconomic status of the patient's family. Methods A retrospective analysis of all children registered blind or partially sighted over a 10-year period until December 2006. Results A total of 256 children were registered blind or partially sighted over the 10 years. All cases were analysed. Of these, 58.2% were male and the average age at registration was 76 months; 52.0% were registered as severely sight-impaired. The most common primary diagnosis was cerebral visual impairment (CVI) in 27% cases, followed by optic atrophy in 16%, and the commonest anatomical site involved was the retina in 30.9%. An average of 25.6 (SD 8.0) registrations were carried out each year. The number of registrations per year is increasing. Seven cases (2.7%) were deemed avoidable and 61 cases (23.8%) were deemed potentially treatable. The mean index of multiple deprivation (IMD) score for the English cases (45.1) was significantly higher than of the surrounding area (Po0.0001) Conclusions The yearly rates of registration increased slowly over the 10 years. The most common underlying cause for registration remains CVI, with the yearly proportion of registrations because of CVI not altering. The average age of registration was 6.3 years. A significant proportion of the cases of visual

Causes of visual impairment in children seen at a university-based hospital low vision service in Brazil

“…In the United Kingdom Rahi and colleauges 9 referred to the most affected anatomic regions as the central nervous system, retina, and optic nerve. Durnian and colleagues 25 confirmed this finding.…”

Causes of certifications for severe sight impairment (blind) and sight impairment (partial sight) in children in England and Wales

“…Cerebral visual impairment may have increased simply through better understanding and recognition of the condition or there may be a true increase due to the improved survival of extremely premature infants who are more vulnerable to cerebral visual loss 2. In the developed world, cerebral visual impairment is the commonest cause of blindness 1 2 11. Contemporary estimates from the Oxford register in England found that cerebral visual impairment is a cause of visual impairment in up to 51% of cases, increasing to 87% for severe visual impariment 12.…”

The role of social deprivation in severe neovascular age-related macular degeneration: Table 1

“…Social deprivation has been linked to a variety of eye conditions,7 – 12 and the association between socioeconomic status and visual impairment is well known 13. In this study, we examined the link between social deprivation and nAMD in a population attending a university hospital in Birmingham, UK.…”

“…Social deprivation has also been linked to a number of ocular conditions, such as primary angle closure glaucoma,7 diabetic retinopathy,8 retinal detachment9 and late presentation of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) 10. It has also been found to be associated with worse visual acuity (VA) at presentation for cataract surgery,11 and paediatric visual impairment registration 12…”