Changing pattern of childhood blindness in Saudi Arabia

SUMMARY We studied 187 patients attending special educational institutions in Saudi Arabia who were blind before the age of 14. All patients underwent complete ophthalmological evaluation. The visual acuity in 31 % of the patients was no light perception and in 58 % light perception to counting fingers at 3 feet (1 m). 70 % were blind before age 2. Prior to 1962 acquired diseases led to blindness in 75 % of the patients. From 1962 onwards genetically determined diseases accounted for 84 % of childhood blindness. 56 % of this group were the product of consanguineous marriages. On the other hand in the group who acquired blindness only 14 % were from consanguineous marriages (p<0-0001). We here describe guidelines for the prevention of childhood blindness in Saudi Arabia. Blindness in children has been studied in different parts of the world.' " In general, malnutrition and infections are major factors and frequent causes of childhood blindness in many underdeveloped and. developing countries. In developed countries geneti-cally determined causes of childhood blindness are more prevalent than nutritional or infectious causes. Socioeconomic development and governmental pro-grammes appear to help in eliminating these causes of blindness. Statistical data about the causes of childhood blindness throughout Saudi Arabia, however, are not available. We therefore studied the causes of blind-ness among 187 Saudi students and assessed the changing pattern in the causation of childhood blind-ness in Saudi Arabia. Subjects and methods Subjects. One hundred and eighty-seven students attending two schools for the blind in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were examined. Students came from dif-ferent parts of the country seeking education, which is subsidised by the Saudi government. We obtained individual histories from the medical charts at th