PATTERN OF CHILDHOOD BLINDNESS IN EASTERN MAHARASHTRA

Aim: Method: To determine the causes of blindness among children in the eastern region of Maharashtra. This is an observational cross – sectional study where 634 children less than 16 years of age with visual acuity of less than 6/60 in better eye (NPCB) were included. All patients coming to ophthalmology OPD and children referred from school heath camps from august 2019- july2022 were included in this study. The WHO/PBL eye examination record for children with blindness and low vision was referred to categorize the causes of blindness and to record the ndings, using the denitions in the coding instructions. Results: 634 children were included. Based on the anatomical site involved, whole globe anomalies contributed to about 41.8% followed by lenticular (24.45%) and corneal causes (19.6%). Vitamin A deciency was the most common cause of preventable blindness accounting for 12.6% and Cataract was the most common cause of treatable blindness (23.34). Almost half (46.68%) of the study population had either preventable or treatable causes of blindness A Conclusion: paradigm shift in causes of blindness has been observed over the years, however there's still a long way to go to reduce overall burden of childhood blindness especially in rural areas.