Abstract
Purpose::
A high percentage of very premature babies suffer from cerebral palsy. Many of them suffer multiple disabilities. In order to investigate a possible correlation of visual disorders and certain types of brain damage in premature cerebral palsied (CP) children, this study was set up.
Methods::
51 premature CP children (GA<32 weeks, BW<1500 g) participated in this study. Gross motor functional classification system (GMFCS), brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and visual resolution assessment using the visual functional assessment - K test was performed. Babies with epilepsy and severe eye operations were excluded.
Results::
The brain MRI showed that the majority of the children (40) appeared with mild to severe periventricular leukomalacia (PVL); GMFCS showed variability in kinetic severity, while the visual testing showed that only 14 children appeared with visual resolution within normal limits.
Conclusions::
Children with mild to moderate disability appeared with better visual level, instead of those with severe to very severe disability whose visual level was significantly reduced. It was also found that children with moderate PVL scored better than those with either severe PVL or combined PVL and cortical atrophy.
Keywords: visual development: infancy and childhood • infant vision