Visual Acuity in Childhood Astigmatism

ABSTRACT

Astigmatism may influence the development of amblyopia and possibly also the development of refractive errors. The length of the sensitive period and the minimum amount of astigmatism necessary to produce significant amblyopia are not yet clearly defined. The authors performed this clinical study to evaluate visual acuity of childhood astigmatism aged from 3 to 5 years. Of the 152 astigmatic eyes studied, the amount of astigmatism ranged from 1 to 2D was found in 46 eyes; 2 to 3 in 68' 3 to 4 in30 and 8eyes revealed over 4D. With-the-rule astigmatism was found in 120 eyes and against-the-rule stigmatism were in 3 eyes. With-the-rule astigmatism was more frequent than against-the-rule astigmatism. Of the 152 eye examined, the corrected visual acuity lower than 0.1 was found in 9 eyes; 0.1 to 0.3 in 54; 0.4 to 0.6 in 69; the rest 20 eyes showed relatively good, might be caused by astimatism was detected in 132 eyes.