title: [Pediatric cataract in a developing country: retrospective review of 328 cases].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pediatric cataracts constitute an important cause of low visual acuity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The objective of the present work is to know the characteristics of this pathology in an ophthalmic attention unit of a developing country.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective, descriptive, transversal study was carried out in 328 cases of pediatric cataracts (children between 0 and 14 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  190 (57.9%) patients were male and 138 (42.1%) female, 145 (44.2%) cases were congenital cataracts and 183 (55.8%) acquired cataracts; 160 (48.8%) presented unilateral affection and 168 (51.2%) bilateral. The treatment was surgical in 98.2% of the cases. The mean age at diagnosis of congenital cataract was 34.9 months. The mean age of presentation of the acquired ones was 76.6 months. The treatment was abandoned in 70.58% cases of congenital cataracts and 64.10% of acquired cataracts. In the congenital ones, 44% presented visual acuity in the range of 20/200 and 20/70 and in the acquired ones, 32.5% were better than 20/30.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data found was not encouraging due to the late detection and the abandon of the treatment, which are bad prognosis factors.
authors.affiliation: Clínica de Oftalmología Pediátrica Estrabismo y Neuro-oftalmología Dra. Amaría Illescas Putzeys, Hospital de ojos y oídos Dr. Rodolfo Robles V., Instituto de Ciencias de la Visión. oftalmopedia@gmail.com
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zimmermann-Paiz
authors.forename: Carlos R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Quiroga-Reyes
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002386:Cataract / Q000151:congenital / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D002387:Cataract Extraction; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D006166:Guatemala / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014792:Visual Acuity