Complex refractive errors in pediatric patients: cause, management, and criteria for success.

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Uncorrected refractive error in children is an important contributor to permanent neurological visual impairment (amblyopia). Spectacles are often inadequate for certain refractive errors that occur in the pediatric population. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to present the diagnostic and therapeutic considerations of infants and children referred to a hospital specialty contact lens practice during a 30-month period. A retrospective cohort design was used to study patients 12 years or younger referred to a hospital-based contact lens service and cared for by the author. Sixty patients were first examined during the enrollment period. Follow-up data were collected after a period of no less than 3 years from the initial visit. Success with the prescribed therapy was assessed by comparing the final method of optical correction with that prescribed at the initial presentation. Aphakia and trauma were the two most common causes for referral, representing 57% of the patients younger than age 12. Contact lenses were prescribed for 51 of the 60 patients (85%) at presentation. Seventy-five percent of patients with unilateral aphakia attributable to congenital cataract were wearing a contact lens at the most recent follow-up examination. This was reduced to 60% with aphakia after trauma and just 50% with bilateral aphakia. The frequency of a visual acuity of 20/40 or better was 67% for bilateral aphakia, 47% after trauma with aphakia, and 25% for unilateral aphakia. The results presented here suggest that patients with unilateral aphakia attributable to congenital cataract have the most consistent contact lens wear, followed by patients with unilateral aphakia attributable to trauma. Patients with bilateral aphakia were more likely to have changed to spectacle lens wear. Patients wearing contact lenses at the most recent follow-up examination were more likely to have good visual acuity.