Clinical Analysis of Monocular Blindness

PURPOSE: There has been no epidemiological data on unilateral visual disabilities in Korea. This study was conducted to investigate the causes and current clinical manifestation of unilateral blindness in Korea based on the register. METHODS: This study was performed of all unilateral blindness registered as sixth degree visual disability from January to December 2000. Sex, the age at onset, and leading causes of blindness were evaluated. RESULTS: Of 145 patients with available clinical data, men were 114(78.6%). The peak incidence of onset of unilateral blindness were at less than 10 years of age(32 patients, 22.1%) and twenties(29 patients, 20.0%). It was found that the leading causes in order of frequency of incidence were trauma(81 patients, 55.9%), congenital anomaly(20 patients, 13.8%), retinal disease(17 patients, 11.7%), glaucoma(12 patients, 8.2%), and corneal disease(7 patients, 4.8%). The mechanism of trauma was penetrating trauma(38 patients, 46.9%), traffic accident(21 patients, 25.9%), and blunt contusion(11 patients, 13.6%). CONCLUSIONS: The unilateral blindness in Korea was much more frequently seen in subjects aged 10 years or less and twenties. The main cause was trauma developed during playing or working. Therefore, health education and safety strategies should be considered for the prevention of unilateral blindness.

A Clinical Study on Blindness

The causes of blindness may be related to a person's life style, social status, age, sex, place of residence and era. To investigate the general aspects of the causes of blindness, authors reviewed clinical records of 16,671 patients who visited the Ophthal mology Department of Chonnam University Hospital in the years 1977, 1980, 1985, and 1989. After reviewing records of patients who had corrected vision below 0.1, we have obtained following results. 1. In the studied sample, 1,696 patients were identified as blind. The blind males(11.0%) were more prevalent than the blind females(9.3%) with a significant difference(p<0.05) and the blininess occurred most frequently in the sixtieth age group. 2. The leading etiologic factors of the blindness were cataract(43.0%) followed by trauma(19.4%), general eyeball dise~ses etc. In 1977 the main cause of blindness was general eyeball diseases. Thereafter, cataract was the leading cause of the blindness. 3. Visual acuities of studied samples were in the order of hand motions, 0.02-0.06, counting fingers, and light perception. The most common causes of absolute blindness were trauma and general eyeball diseases. In the case of visual acuity of better than hand motions, cataract was the leading cause. Cataracts were more prevalent in the age group above fiftieth, while trauma was the chief cause in those under thirtieth. 4. Suggested etiology of disease which directly cause blindness included unknown etiology(54.8%), trauma, undetermined and systemic diseases. In the unknown etiology group, cataract and glaucoma were distributed in high proportion while in the trauma group corneal diseases were the chief cause.