Causes of blindness in the Republic of Srpska

Introduction. To determine the prevalence and identify potentially curable causes of blindness. Material and methods. We analyzed causes of blindness in 808 blind persons, aged from 0 to 75 years. We classified our findings in 13 categories. Results. The least number of blind persons was discovered in children aged from 0 to 15 years (2.4%), as well as in teenagers (3.4%). The number of blind persons in working population, aged from 30 to 60 was (33.1%) and in older population it was (60.7%). Glaucoma was the highest cause of blindness (15.9%). Complications of myopia (14.6%) took the second place. Conclusion. We think that our community needs more screening projects for glaucoma, refraction anomalies in children and diabetic retinopathy, through which the causes of blindness would be discovered and treated on time and people would be much more educated about risks and consequences of untreated eye diseases and conditions.