Pattern of childhood blindness at a referral center in Saudi Arabia

An understanding of the causes of blindness and the magnitude of the problem is crucial in designing effective intervention and prevention programs. We undertook this retrospective review to determine the causes of childhood blindness at an eye referral center. We reviewed charts of children who presented between August 1997 and August 2003. All children had a complete ophthalmologic examination. Blindness was defined as a visual acuity <20/400, visual impairment as visual acuity between 20/400 and 20/60, and visual loss as a visual acuity <20/60. A total of 5217 children included 220 [59%] males and 152 [41%] females [age range 2 to 18 years, mean age, 10 years]. One hundred twelve [2%] were blind and 260 [5%] had visual impairment. The most common causes of bilateral blindness included optic nerve diseases, retinal disorders, and cataract. The most common causes of unilateral blindness included trauma, retinal diseases, refractive errors, and optic nerve diseases. The most common causes of bilateral visual impairment included refractive errors, corneal diseases, retinal disorders, cataract, and congenital nystagmus. Genetically determined disorders were observed in 37 [70%] of 53 patients with bilateral blindness, and in 52 [56%] of 93 patients with bilateral visual impairment. The incidence of consanguinity among parents of children with acquired causes was 2 [3%] of 59 patients compared to 34 [38%] of 89 among genetically determined causes [P<0.001]. Genetically determined disorders continue to play an important role in the causation of childhood blindness among patients attending our referral center in Saudi Arabia. Genetic counseling, early eye screening of children and public education may help in the prevention of visual disorders in children

Susceptibility of clinically significant ocular isolates to lomefloxacin 0.3

Purpose: The main objective of this in vitro study was to assess the antibacterial activity of lomefloxacin against clinically significant bacterial isolates and to compare the efficacy of lomefloxacin with the antibiotics of common practice. Materials and A total of 100 clinically significant isolates from the conjunctival swab culture were used in this study. Blood and chocolate agar plates and thioglycolate broth were used as culture media. Chloramphenicol, Tobramycin, Gentamicin, Fucidic acid, Ampicillin, Ciprofloxacin, Erythromycin, Tetramycin and Vancomycin antibiotics were used as comparison drugs versus lomefloxacin 0.3%. Results Sixty% of the 100 cases had acute bacterial conjunctivitis, 32% had nasolacrimal duct obstruction, blepharitis, chronic conjunctivitis and lid abscess. The remaining 8% had other ocular disorders. The isolated organisms were Haemophillus spp. [25%], coagulase negative Staphylococci [17%], Pneurmococci [10%], Pseudomonas aeruginosa [3%] and gram-negative bacilli [2%]. The sensitivity to lomefloxacin, chloramphenicol and ciprofloxacin were 94%, 96% and 95% respectively, Conclusion Topical lomefloxacin 0.3% is an effective antibacterial agent in the eradication of infection of the ocular surface. It has a wide range of efficacy against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria