Aim: The aim of this study was to look into the causes of blindness by examination of blind students in a tertiary hospital.

Material and Methods: This was a hospital based cross sectional observational study carried out for a period of two years. A total of 349 patients were included in this study who attended our department for the purpose of demand of writer in their competitive entrance examination. Patients who had visual acuity less than 6/60 to 4/60 in better eye (VI disability percentage 100%) were included in this study. The subjects with visual acuity greater than 6/60 in better eye, mentally retarded patients and uncooperative patients were excluded. The main cause of blindness was noted according to age and cause. VI disability percentage as proposed by Indian Government was used to give percentage to all subjects. All patients underwent detailed ophthalmic examination including visual acuity, refraction, slit lamp examination and fundus evaluation.

Observations and Results: A total of 349 patients were included in our study out of which 62 percent were males. All of our patients were between 21-30 years. Nystagmus was the most common finding observed in our study in about 166 (47.56%) eyes. Microphthalmos and coloboma along with other globe conditions (146, 41.83%) were the most common cause of blindness in our patients. Anophthalmos and enophthalmos (58, 16.62%) was the second most important cause of blindness in this age group. Corneal scarring and opacity (56, 16.05%) was third in position in ranking list of cause of blindness. Retinal degenerations (30, 8.60%) and complicated pseudophakia (28, 8.03%) cases occupied fourth and fifth position repectively among causes of blindness. Optic atrophy (30, 8.59%) and buphthalmos (1, 0.28%) was other causes found in contributing to blindness in these subjects.

Conclusion: Childhood blindness remains one of the important causes of visual morbidity in young age individuals. Majority of our cases who came for visual disability certificate suffered from nystagmus and microcornea.  Hence children should be treated at the earliest in order to prevent some of the avoidable causes of blindness and allow them to live an acceptable quality of life. Education of parents and society also should be taken into consideration.

Keywords: Blindness, Blind students, Disability Percentage, Visual Impairment.

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Dr Deepak Mishra

Assistant Professor, Regional Institute of Ophthalmology, IMS, BHU, Varanasi, UP, India