RT Book, Section
A1 Khitri, Monica R.
A1 Isenberg, Sherwin J.
A2 Kline, Mark W.
SR Print(0)
ID 1182925680
T1 International Pediatric Ophthalmology
T2 Rudolph's Pediatrics, 23e
YR 2018
FD 2018
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9781259588594
LK accesspediatrics.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1182925680
RD 2024/04/19
AB It  has  been  estimated  that  19  million  children  globally  are  visually  impaired,  of  whom  1.4  million  are  irreversibly  blind.  Not  only  does  childhood  blindness  invoke  substantial  financial  burden  to  the  family  and  country  healthcare  resources,  it  impacts  neurobehavioral  development  and  survival:  up  to  60%  of  these  children  do  not  survive  within  1  year  of  becoming  blind.  While  1  million  of  these  children  are  considered  untreatable  by  current  standards  due  to  retinal  dystrophy,  microphthalmos,  cortical  blindness,  and  optic  atrophy  or  hypoplasia,  the  remaining  400,000  cases  are  potentially  treatable.  The  main  avoidable  causes  are  corneal  scarring  from  infection  or  trauma  (260,000),  cataract  (50,000),  and  retinopathy  of  prematurity  (ROP;  40,000).  Other  treatable  blinding  conditions  include  amblyopia  and  uncorrected  refractive  error.  Much  of  the  data  concerning  causes  of  pediatric  blindness  in  developing  countries  come  from  studies  of  children  attending  schools  for  the  blind.  This  information  may  represent  a  bias,  since  data  from  children  not  attending  these  schools  would  not  be  included.