Causes of blindness and low vision in childrenPurpose: To identify and analyze the major preventable and treatable causes of loss of vision in children. Methods: Children (174) from three institutions were examined in two Brazilians cities (Salvador and São Paulo) and data were recorded acording to the WHO protocol. Results: According to WHO visual impairment was found in 82% of the children. The most frequent preventable and treatable ocular diseases were retinopathy of prematurity and glaucoma. Conclusions: This pilot study shows similar charac-teristics to other developing countries, where at least 50% of ocular diseases are preventable or treatable with today's knowledge.
Low vision; Retinopathy of prema-turity; Glaucoma
