The main causes of blindness and low vision in school for blind

One hundred sixty-five medical records of visually impaired students were reviewed in an institution specialized in teaching the blind, treated between august 2013 and may 2014. The variables analyzed were age, sex, visual acuity, primary and secondary diagnoses, treatment, optical prescription features and prognosis.

Results:

165 students were evaluated, 91 students (55%) are legally blind and only 74 (45%) of the students are classified as low vision. The main causes of blindness were: retinopathy of prematurity (21%), optic nerve atrophy (18%), congenital glaucoma (16%), retinal dystrophy (11%) and cancer (8%). The causes of low vision were: congenital cataract (18%), congenital glaucoma (15%) and retinochoroidal scarring (12%).

Conclusions:

The main causes of blindness and low vision in the Benjamin Constant Institute are from preventable diseases.

Keywords:
Blindness; Low vision; Visual acuity; Child; Health school

Optical resources	N
Glasses	50
Reading bar	5
Hand-held magnifier	3
Hand-held magnifier + Reading bar	4
Large font	2
Glasses + Hand-held magnifier	2
Glasses + Reading bar	1
Do not use	98

	Visual acuity without correction	Visual acuity with correction
No light perception	25	25
Light perception	21	21
Perception of figures	16	16
<20/400	43	23
20/400	7	5
20/320	8	8
20/250	11	13
20/200	18	9
20/160	6	9
20/125	3	7
20/100	4	12
20/80	0	6
20/60	1	6
20/50	1	1
20/40	1	4

Primary diagnosis	Blind students	N (%)	Alunos com baixa visao	N (%)
Retinopathy of prematurity	19	21	4	5
Optic nerve atrophy	16	18	6	8
Congenital glaucoma	15	16	11	15
Retinal dystrophy	10	11	4	5
Neoplasia	7	8	1	1
Congenital cataracts	6	7	13	18
Retinochoroiditis scar	5	5	9	12
Change of the eye bulb	4	4	1	1
Undiagnosed	4	4	4	5
Aniridia	2	2	5	7
Retinal detachment	2	2	0	0
Congenital rubella	1	1	0	0
Albinism	0	0	8	11
Coloboma	0	0	3	4
Marfan syndrome	0	0	2	3
Congenital cytomegalovirus	0	0	1	1
Keratoconus	0	0	1	1
Eye trauma	0	0	1	1
Total	91	100	74	100

	Students with secondary diagnosis	N(%)
Retinal detachment	12	20
Congenital cataracts	9	15
Retinoblastoma	7	12
Nystagmus	4	6,8
Optic nerve atrophy	4	6,8
Microphthalmos	4	6,8
Aniridia	3	5,1
Retinitis Pigmentosa	2	3,4
Stargardt disease	2	3,4
Secondary glaucoma	1	1,7
Congenital corneal opacity	1	1,7
Degenerative myopia	1	1,7
Leber congenital amaurosis	1	1,7
Ganglioglioma	1	1,7
Encephalopathy	1	1,7
Anoftalmia	1	1,7
Peters syndrome	1	1,7
Retinochoroiditis scar	1	1,7
Congenital malformation	1	1,7
Congenital syphilis	1	1,7
Total	58	100

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E-mail: rbo@sboportal.org.br

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[1] Corresponding author: Abelardo Couto Júnior, Phone: 21 996263476. E-mail: coutojras@ig.com.br