Indications for Surgery among New Patients Presenting to the Paediatric Ophthalmology Unit of the University College Hospital, Ibadan

Paediatric Ophthamology & Strabismus

Abstract

Introduction: Preventing childhood blindness is one of the priorities of the Vision 2020 initiative.1 Child eye health services include  medical, surgical  and rehabilitative services and should be tailored to the needs of the setting in which they are situated. Globally, 1.4  million children are blind and childhood cataract is the leading cause.2 Surgical services are therefore an indispensable aspect of child  eye health. It is recommended that there should be one Child Eye Health Tertiary Facility (CEHTF) per 10 million population.3 Nigeria is  yet to achieve this target as there are currently only seven such centres, including the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan,3  serving a population of approximately 200 million people. However, with the commencement of training of paediatric  ophthalmologists within the country in the last five years, it is expected that there would be an improvement in the number and quality  of child eye health centres. The aim of the study was to determine the indications for ophthalmic surgery among new patients  presenting to the Paediatric Ophthalmology Clinic, UCH, over two years in order to provide evidence to enhance planning and delivery  of paediatric ophthalmology surgical services.

Methods: The study was a retrospective review  of records of all new patients aged 0 to16 years presenting to the Paediatric  Ophthalmology Clinic from May 2015 to April 2017. The paediatric ophthalmology team, UCH, Ibadan, comprises three consultant  paediatric ophthalmologists; and three experienced optometrists and one low vision  expert who also serve other clinics. The unit runs one clinic day and one theatre day per week   handles all paediatric cases except orbital pathologies and oncology cases. Information  on demographic characteristics, clinical diagnosis, indications for surgery and type of surgery scheduled were retrieved from the  diagnosis register of the unit and descriptively summarized.