Visual impairment in premature children in school age

Background: The developments in neonatology have resulted in an increasing number of deliveries of extremely immature infants that are associated with high morbidity. The main cause of eye disorders is retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) and neurological diseases. Eye disorders related to the retinopathy of premature infants may be presumed and examined very early after birth. Many of the eye disorders appear, however, later in life. The aim of this study was to document the quality of visual functions in premature infants in their school age and to compare them with the visual functions in a group of full-term healthy children. Materials and methods: The research was carried out on 37 children at the age of 8, who were born prematurely with a weight below 1500 g. The visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, strabismus and refraction errors were examined. Similar qualities of vision were examined in the group of full-term born children of the same age. Results: The visual acuity in the group of premature infants was in the range of 1.0–0.8 in 80.6% of eyes, 0.7–0.5 in 6.9%, 0.4–0.3 in 2.8%, 0.2– 0.1 in 8.3%, less than 0.1 in 1.4% of eyes. 48.6% of the examined children wear glasses, and hypermetropic correction prevails in 28.4% of their eyes. Strabismus was found in 18.9% of premature children. Contrast sensitivity was reduced in all spatial frequencies, mostly to the level of 3.69 c/deg (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Results of this study confirm an increased prevalence of refraction errors and strabismus in premature infants. The contrast sensitivity was in the group of premature infants significantly lower. The ophthalmologic follow-up of the premature infants should include the children both with and without ROP.