Abstract

ZULUAGA, Claudia; SIERRA, María Victoria  and  ASPRILLA, Elizabeth. Childhood blindness in Cali, Colombia. Colomb. Med. [online]. 2005, vol.36, n.4, pp.235-238. ISSN 1657-9534.

INTRODUCTION: Retinopathy of prematurity is the major cause of blindness (33.8%) in children who study at the "Instituto para niños ciegos y sordos del Valle del Cauca" between1994 and 2004; the only school for blindness care in south-west of Colombia OBJECTIVE: To quantify main causes of blindness in Cali in order to give support to health care programs that really generate impact in visual illnesses of majorprevalence in Cali METHODOLOGY: Checking daily registration of the Psychology Department of the "Instituto para niños ciegos y sordos del Valle del Cauca" 124 children were found registered from 1994 to 2004. Medical histories were verified and if one of them wasn’t available ocular ultrasound, with parents present, was carried out to the child for making the distribution of visual illness. RESULTS: Of the 124 children that were in the institution, 42 (33.8%) had retinopathy of prematurity as diagnosis; to the rest other diagnoses were made. CONCLUSIONS: The major causes of blindness in children attending the "Instituto para niños ciegos y sordos del Valle del Cauca," are preventable blindness with primary prevention the retinopathy of prematurity and ocular toxoplasmosis, or with secondary prevention retinopathy of prematurity, glaucoma, retinoblastoma and congenital cataract

Keywords : Avoidable childhood blindness; Retinopathy of prematurity; Ocular toxoplasmosis.