Profile of visual impairment in children attending low vision clinic of Nepal Eye Hospital

Abstract

Introducti on: Visual impairment (VI) in children accounts for great challenge in the life of children that leads to greater medical, psychological, social and economic problems since the child has to live up with handicap for many years to come. Identi fying the main causes of visual degradati on and their patt ern will help in preventi ve measures, early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitati on of vulnerable populati on. The aim of this study was to fi nd out the patt ern of visual impairment in children att ending low vision clinic of Nepal Eye Hospital.Methods: A retrospecti ve cross--secti onal review of hospital records of all VI children att ending the low vision clinic from 1 st May 2010 to 31 st April 2011 with age less than 16 years was done.Results: Overall, 65 children were included in this study with mean age 11.58±3.83 years. Among them 55.4% were male. More than one third (34%) of the total children were in the category of blindness. More than two thirds (72.30%) pati ents had refracti ve error. Majority of the pati ents (66.15%) had multi ple causes of visual impairment. Major causes of visual impairment were nystagmus (58.46%), high refracti ve error (26.15%) and amblyopia (24.61%). Low vision devices were prescribed for only 18.46% of the total pati ents. Telescope was the most frequently prescribed low vision opti cal device. Conclusion:Nystagmus, high refracti ve error and amblyopia were the main causes of VI. Most of the cases had multi ple causes. Low vision devices were prescribed for very few of the visual impaired pati ents and telescope was the most frequently prescribed among them.

Characteristic of low vision patients attending an eye hospital in eastern region of Nepal

“…Most of them were of less than 30 years and the cause was possibly congenital. Similar ¿ ndings were reported in another study done in Nepal (Sapkota et al, 2011).…”

Low Vision Aids: Visual Outcomes and Barriers in Children with Low Vision

“…2 The leading causes for low vision in children in India are retinal diseases, amblyopia and optic atrophy. 3 The causes of low vision in children vary from one geographical area to another 3,4 highlighting the importance for an area based epidemiological data pool on low vision. There are various factors that influence the utilization of low vision services.…”

“…Sapkota et al studied the profile of low vision children in Nepal. They reported that major cause of visual impairment was nystagmus (58.46%) 4.…”