Blindness in schoolchildren: importance of heredity, congenital cataract, and prematurity

Of 99 children in the Royal Blind School, Edinburgh (which serves Scotland and part of N E England), 15 had optic atrophy (hydrocephalus 4, intracranial haemorrhage 2, prematurity 2, fetal distress 2, birth asphyxia 2, cerebral atrophy 1, cardiac arrest during hernia operation 1, and leukaemia 1). F...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of ophthalmology 1987-08, Vol.71 (8), p.578-584
Main Authors: Phillips, Calbert I, Levy, Anthony M, Newton, Marjorie, Stokoe, N Leslie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Biological and medical sciences
Birth Weight
Blindness - etiology
Blindness - genetics
Cataract - congenital
Child
Child, Preschool
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Intelligence
Medical sciences
Ophthalmology
Optic Atrophy - complications
Probability
Retinopathy of Prematurity - complications
Vision disorders
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Of 99 children in the Royal Blind School, Edinburgh (which serves Scotland and part of N E England), 15 had optic atrophy (hydrocephalus 4, intracranial haemorrhage 2, prematurity 2, fetal distress 2, birth asphyxia 2, cerebral atrophy 1, cardiac arrest during hernia operation 1, and leukaemia 1). Fourteen had congenital cataract, 12 congenital retinal aplasia (Leber's congenital amaurosis) and 11 retinopathy of prematurity. There were small numbers in many other diagnostic categories, including three with non-accidental head injury. Mental retardation, spasticity, and nystagmus were frequent other correlates in all diagnostic categories. 'Very probably hereditary' was a conservative attribution in 36, while 'probable' seemed appropriate for 12-that is, almost 48% were hereditary. Only about 11 cases might have been prevented through genetic counselling, which testifies to the frequency of autosomal recessive hereditary disease, although no parents were consanguineous.
ISSN:0007-1161
1468-2079
DOI:10.1136/bjo.71.8.578