title: Prevalence of congenital eye anomalies in a paediatric clinic in Ghana.
abstract: There is little information about the epidemiology of congenital eye anomalies in Ghana. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 485 admissions to the paediatric eye centre of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana (2004-2009) and 263 were diagnosed with at least one anomaly. Visual acuity was quantitatively assessed in 209 patients and 130 had some visual impairment; 49 with bilateral and 64 with unilateral blindness. The most frequent congenital anomaly overall was cataract (n = 44). In infants, cataract was the most frequent finding (28/121). Toddlers most frequently presented with retinoblastoma (10/65). Glaucoma was the most frequent anomaly in preschool (9/39) and school (10/38) children. We conclude that avoidable causes of childhood blindness caused most congenital eye anomalies. Intensification of community-based health promotion and preventive eye care, early detection and provision of adequate resources for effective therapy could reverse these trends.
authors.affiliation: Department of Optometry, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ilechie
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Ghana Medical School, Korle-Bu, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Essuman
authors.affiliation: Department of Optometry, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Enyionam