Does Hypovitaminosis A in Mothers Cause Congenital Malformation of the Eye?

Abstract

Introduction: Congenital malformation is an important cause of childhood blindness. Hence, we attempted to study the factors responsible for it. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study. We collected data from our hospital EMR for the period 2008-2019. We retrieved the total number of paediatric outdoor and children with congenitally malformed eyes. We also explored the history of night blindness in mothers during pregnancy, exported the data to excel sheets, and calculated the type of anomalies using descriptive analyses with SPSS 22. Results: Our cohort included 1435 children out of the total 100946 (1.42%) outdoor of paediatric ophthalmology. We found various anomalies in our analyses. We discerned that 423 (29.47%) cases had a history of night blindness to mother during pregnancy, suggesting vitamin A deficiency. Conclusion: Based on our clinical observation, it could be concluded that hypovitaminosis A in mother results in maldevelopment and congenital anomalies of the eye in children.