Cerebral visual impairment is a major cause of profound visual impairment in children aged less than 3 years: A study from tertiary eye care center in South India

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate causes for profound visual impairment in children ≤3 years of age at a tertiary eye care center in Andhra Pradesh, India. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted for all the children (≤3 years) who attended the pediatric ophthalmology service between January 2012 and February 2017. Results: A total of 428 severely visually impaired children aged ≤3 years were seen during the study period: 264 (62%) of them were boys and I64 (38%) were girls. The average age at presentation was 14.02 months. The causes of visual impairment were cerebral visual impairment (CVI) 142 (33%), a combination of CVI and ocular visual impairment (OVI) 48 (11%), and OVI only 236 (56%), which included congenital cataract 56 (13.1%), retinopathy of prematurity 52 (I2.6%), optic atrophy 17 (4.5%), congenital nystagmus (4.4%), congenital globe anomalies 2I (5.2%), and high refractive errors - 10 (2.8%). Delays in different areas of development were seen in 103 out of 142 children with CVI (72.5%), which included motor delay 53 (51.5%), cognitive delay 15 (14.6%), speech delay in 3 (2.9%), and delay in multiple areas of development (like combination of motor, cognitive, and speech delay) in 32 (31.1%). Conclusion: In children under 3 years of age, CVI is a major cause of profound visual impairment in our area and the majority of them manifest delay in several areas of development.