Paediatric Ophthalmology, Sri Sankaradeva Nethralaya, Guwahati, Assam, India.
Indian J Ophthalmol. 2022 Jan;70(1):214-222. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_1038_21.
To assess the causes of visual impairment and blindness in children in all the schools for the blind in eight northeastern states and to determine its temporal trend, and to analyze the result with reference to various regional epidemiological data on childhood blindness in India.
Children aged ≤16 years, with a visual acuity of ≤6/18 in the better eye, attending 17 schools for the blind were examined between November 2018 and March 2020. WHO protocol and reporting format was used for the evaluation, diagnosis, and classification of the causes.
Out of 465 eligible study participants, 93.76% were blind and only 12.26% of causes were avoidable. Anatomical causes of childhood blindness were whole globe (43.2%), cornea (17.20%), optic nerve (12.04%), retina (9.68%), and lens (9.46%). Etiological causes were unknown (52.69%), hereditary (26.02%), intrauterine (15.05%), and 26.08% had blinding congenital ocular abnormality (s). Regional temporal trend revealed a decrease in corneal and childhood causes and an increase in retina, optic nerve, hereditary, and intrauterine causes.
A constellation of causes were differentiable but matched with the overall emerging trend of childhood blindness in India. Higher corneal, unavoidable, and unknown causes suggest a region-specific action plan for controlling childhood blindness as well as rehabilitation.
评估东北 8 个州所有盲童学校中儿童视力障碍和失明的原因，并确定其时间趋势，并结合印度儿童失明的各种区域性流行病学数据来分析结果。
2018 年 11 月至 2020 年 3 月，对 17 所盲童学校中年龄≤16 岁、较好眼视力≤6/18 的儿童进行了检查。评估、诊断和分类病因时采用了世界卫生组织的方案和报告格式。
在 465 名符合条件的研究参与者中，93.76%失明，仅有 12.26%的病因可避免。儿童失明的解剖学原因是整个眼球（43.2%）、角膜（17.20%）、视神经（12.04%）、视网膜（9.68%）和晶状体（9.46%）。病因不明（52.69%）、遗传（26.02%）、宫内（15.05%），26.08%有致盲性先天性眼部异常。区域时间趋势显示，角膜和儿童病因减少，视网膜、视神经、遗传性和宫内病因增加。
虽然存在多种病因，但与印度儿童失明的总体新兴趋势一致。较高的角膜、不可避免和未知病因表明需要制定一个针对该地区的儿童失明控制和康复计划。
