VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN SWEDISH CHILDREN III - DIAGNOSES

Purpose: To gain an overview of the spectrum of diagnoses among Swedis h visually impaired children, Methods: An epidemiological study of all known visually impaired children was made by review of medical record s, Results and conclusion: In all we found 2373 children, 0-19 years o f age, with an age-specific prevalence of 10.9/10 000, The two largest diagnostic groups included neuro-ophthalmological and retinal disease s, The most frequent disorders were cerebral visual impairment, non-he reditary optic atrophy, retinal dystrophy (when regarded as a general entity), congenital hypoplasia of the optic nerve and congenital catar act, Nystagmus secondary to brain disorder, albinism, congenital nysta gmus, retinopathy of prematurity and high myopia were also found in a considerable number of patients, The leading diagnoses in children wit h WHO-defined childhood blindness were non-hereditary optic atrophy, c erebral visual impairment and retinopathy of prematurity, A large prop ortion of the children, especially in the groups with neuro-ophthalmol ogical disorders and malformations of the posterior segment had additi onal impairments, emphasizing the importance of a multi-disciplinary a pproach when assessing multi-handicapped children.