title: Surgical treatment of ocular toxocariasis: anatomic and functional results in 45 patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the anatomic and functional outcome after surgery in patients with complicated ocular toxocariasis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective review of the medical records of pediatric patients who underwent a surgical procedure for ocular toxocariasis from July 1990 to January 2005. Patients with postoperative follow-up shorter than 6 months were excluded from the study. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was arbitrarily divided into 5 groups: 1) no light perception (NLP); 2) light perception (LP) and hand motion (HM); 3) finger counting (FC) to 20/400; 4) 20/300 to 20/60; and 5) 20/50 to 20/20.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty-five patients with a mean age of 8.1 years (range 6-10) were included in the study. The ocular toxocariasis presentation most commonly encountered was peripheral granuloma (38%). Twenty-one eyes presented with BCVA in the LP/HM group, 18 (40%) eyes in the FC to 20/400 group, 5 (12%) eyes in the 20/300 to 20/60 group, and 1 (5%) eye in the 20/50 to 20/20 group. The most common surgical procedure was pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in 58% of the eyes. Four eyes (9%) presented with postoperative BCVA of NLP, 2 eyes (4%) in the LP/HM group, 12 eyes (27%) in the FC to 20/400 group, 19 eyes (42%) in the 20/300 to 20/60 group, and 8 eyes (18%) in the 20/50 to 20/20 group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgical treatment of severe ocular complications secondary to toxocara infections results in satisfactory anatomic results and may improve the overall visual outcome of these patients.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Cirugía Oftalmológica (CECOF), Caracas, Venezuela. gpgiuliari@gmail.com
authors.forename: Gian Paolo
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Giuliari
authors.forename: Gema
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ramirez
authors.forename: Rafael T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Cortez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D015822:Eye Infections, Parasitic / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017166:Toxocara canis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D014120:Toxocariasis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D014792:Visual Acuity / Q000502:physiology; D014821:Vitrectomy