Survey of Causes of Blindness on Blind Students in Korea.

Lee, Wan Ki; Sohn, Moo Shik

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 1976;17(4):489-493.
Published online April 1, 1976.

Survey of Causes of Blindness on Blind Students in Korea.

Wan Ki Lee, Moo Shik Sohn

Department of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.

한국 맹아학생의 실명원인에 관한 조사

이완기 , 손무식 ( Wan Ki Lee , Moo Sik Son )

Abstract

This is a study on the causes of the blindness for 217 blind students in Korea. Blindness in defined as the visual acuity for distance of 0.1 (20/200) or less in the better eye with best correction. The causes of blindness in descending order of frequency are as follows: unknown eye diseases (32.3%). congenital diseases (31.3%). infectious diseases (8.8%), meningitis (6.5%), injury and intoxication(6%), refractive errors(6%), febrile diseases(6%), and malnutrition (1.4%), etc. Rate of blindness by site and type of affection is shown as: atrophia bulbi (33.6%). optic nerve diseases(23.1%). cataract(18.996), corneal diseases(11.4%), glaucoma(10.696). anophthalmos(7.4%). amblyopia(6.5%), retinal diseases (2.8%), uveitis (1.0%), high myopia(0.5%), and other diseases (6.4%), etc. Comparisons with other statistics on causes of blindness in the inland and the foreign countries are attempted. Evaluation of results and problems establishing a more detailed and nationwide survey in future are briefly discussed in comment.