Visual acuity in the newborn with notes on some objective methods to determine visual acuity

Critical analysis of visual function evaluating techniques in newborn babies

“…Closely related to this aspect is the lack of knowledge on the maturation of related functions which may alter the visual performance in an important way. They include fixation, accommodation (42,68), convergence, motor fusion, stereoscopic perception and optokinetic nystagmus (52,59). Moreover, it is likely that the performance of babies at the various tests changes with growth.…”

“…This seemed to be an acceptable aim, considering that newborn babies are usually unable to cooperate in subjective testing (71). Some methods were subsequently developed which were based on the fact that the child would naturally turn its head and eyes towards a stimulus, if it was able to detect it (1,8,31,33,54,59,69).…”

“…If no OKN is elicitable, in newborn babies, one cannot establish whether the vision is indeed lacking. First, we do not know how long it takes to develop a full-functioning optokinetic nystagmus mechanism in the child (59) and the absence of OKN could simply be attributed to a delay in maturation of the mechanism. The latter involves motor aspects, vestibular integrity, etc.…”

Early surgery and visual correction of an infant born with unilateral eye lens opacity

“…These data may be compared with resolution data obtained by other investigators using a variety of test techniques (Linksz, 1973). In Fig.…”