Causes of blindness in a pediatric age group at a tertiary healthcare center in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia

OBJECTIVES: To describe causes of blindness and visual impairment (VI) in children in Eastern province, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A record-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. Medical records of patients aged 2 to 16 years who were following up in the Pediatric Ophthalmology Clinics, Dhahran Eye Specialist Hospital, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia between September and December 2018 were reviewed. Causes of vision loss according to visual acuity (VA) with best correction were recorded. Blindness was defined as VA <20/400, VI as VA from 20/400 to 20/60, and visual loss as VA of ≤20/60. RESULTS: Of 818 patients, 39% had visual loss, 22.9% were blind, and 71.2% had VI. Common etiologies of bilateral blindness were retinal dystrophy disease and Leber’s congenital amaurosis, whereas unilateral blindness was most common due to trauma and refractive error (RE). Common etiologies of bilateral VI were RE, esotropia, and retinal dystrophy. Unilateral VI was mainly due to RE, cataract, congenital esotropia, and trauma. Of all patients, 58.8% had treatable causes, 22.6% had preventable causes, and 19.5% had non-preventable and non-treatable causes; mostly genetic or congenital (59.7%) rather than acquired (40.2%). CONCLUSION: Genetic or congenital causes are major factors causing blindness. Most causes are treatable and preventable, emphasizing on early detection and treatment of those causes.