Overview
The Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology's Abrahamson Pediatric Eye Institute (APEI) Vision Screening Program at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center educates the public and takes a proactive approach to treating reversible vision loss in children. Trained program volunteers visit Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky schools, health fairs and enrichment programs to examine kids' eyes and provide glasses and eye patches where appropriate. Cincinnati Children's collaborates with LensCrafters, Cincinnati Public Schools, the Cincinnati Health Department, Prevent Blindness Southwest Ohio and the Opticians Association of Ohio and others to provide this service.
Reversible Vision Loss
The frequency of reversible vision loss in children ranges from 3 to 5% in North America. The cause of vision loss is amblyopia (lazy eye), the loss of vision in an eye due to failure to use the eye. A "use it or lose it" phenomenon exists, by which a child allows one of their eyes to shut down and shut off. Frequently, the end result is failure of that eye to develop good vision. After the age of six or seven, vision loss is irreversible, so eye examinations are essential in the early years.
Amblyopia is reversible with appropriate and timely medical intervention.
What could cause a child to fail to use an eye? If one eye is misaligned, the aligned eye will develop good vision and the misaligned eye will not. Occasionally, a very serious or even life-threatening condition may cause failure of vision to develop in an eye. An example of this would be an intraocular tumor.
Screening Program
The Vision Screening Program started in 1996. Today, screenings are conducted at 29 Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky elementary schools and community centers. Of more than 3,000 children screened, over 20% have been diagnosed with correctable eye problems and referred to an eye care professional.
The program is aimed only at children under the age of seven to provide early diagnosis of preventable eye disease.
Visual screening and eye examinations may involve any number of tests. The screening performed by our program consists of the following three tests:
- Visual Acuity: using symbol charts and then recording what the child sees
- Muscle Balance: (Hirschberg Test) using a pen light and noting where the light reflex hits the cornea to reveal a crossed or wall-eyed child
- Depth perception
Members of the Cincinnati Rotary Club and other volunteers are trained to administer the screening tests.
