Visual disorders associated with cerebral palsy

ABSTRACT

Ninety children with cerebral palsy were examined in the ophthalmic and paediatric clinics, Medical City Teaching hospital in Baghdad during the years 1984 and 1985. This group of children ranged in age from 9 months to 10 years and were moderately to severly disabled. The most frequent type of ocular defect was that associated with external ocular movement, of these 67% had gross strabismus [squint], 23% had nystagmus and 3% had gaze palsy. Refractive error with or without squint was found only in 40% of them and there was a high incidence of strabismic and anisometropic emblyopia with 11% of them had a normal eye and ocular adnexae. It has been found that there is no strong connection between the different types of cerebral palsy and the various forms of strabismus, and the type of strabismus is more or less independent on the stage of refraction