www.clinophthaljournal.com 007 https://doi.org/10.29328/journal.ijceo.1001043 Research Article Profiling children with cerebral visual impairment in a tertiary eye care center Addisu Worku Teshome* and Martha Degefu Worku Department of Ophthalmology, College of Health Science, School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia More Information *Address for Correspondence: Addisu Worku Teshome, MD, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Department of Ophthalmology, College of Health Science, School of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Email: addiaddu@yahoo.com Submitted: February 20, 2022 Approved: April 06, 2022 Published: April 07, 2022 How to cite this article: Teshome AW, Worku MD. Profiling children with cerebral visual impairment in a tertiary eye care center. Int J Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2022; 6: 007-012. DOI: 10.29328/journal.ijceo.1001043 ORCiD: orcid.org/0000-0002-4992-6520 Copyright License: © 2022 Teshome AW, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Keywords: Profile; Children; Cerebral visual impairment OPEN ACCESS Abstract Background: Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is a bilateral visual impairment that affects children in all industrialized countries. It has become more common in low-income countries as a result of the increased survival rates of children who suffer from severe neurological conditions during the perinatal period. The purpose of this study was to determine the characteristics of children with CVI in a tertiary children’s eye care center population. Methods: From October 2020 to September 2021, a cross-sectional study was conducted to select all consecutive patients with a diagnosis of cerebral visual impairment aged 6 months to 16 years. On the neurological deficit, information was gathered from the patient’s referral: parental interviews, observations, and direct assessment were used for functional vision characteristics, and an ophthalmic examination was performed for eye findings. The interviewees’ responses were matched to the ten specific behavioral characteristics shared by children with CVI. Cortical visual impairment was diagnosed using three criteria: [the vision loss is not explained by abnormalities found on the eye examination, a neurological medical diagnosis, and the child exhibits one of the unique visual and behavioral characteristics described by Roman Lantz]. A descriptive statistical analysis (frequency, mean, and range) was calculated. Results: Forty children with CVI (1.96% of total children) were seen. The mean age was 2.56 (฀ 1.98) years. There were 24 (60%) males. On a referral paper of 28, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy was the commonest cause mentioned (70.0%). Seizures were the most frequent neurological deficit at presentation. Ophthalmic and neurologic impairments were found in 42.5% of children with CVI. Based on Roman-Lantzy’s three phases of the CVI Range, 90% of children with CVI at the test time had Phase I or Phase II vision. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, visual impairment is critical in the diagnosis of CVI. The prevalence of CVI as a cause of childhood vision impairment is significant. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is the most common cause of CVI. All children with CVI have serious neurological issues, and the majority have associated ophthalmic abnormalities. it is not a consciously symptomatic condition, many affected children go unidentiϐied [5]. Indeed, the most common causes and associations with CVI are cerebral anoxia (or hypoxia) and periventricular leukomalacia [6,7]. It can also occur as a result of meningitis [8], encephalitis [9], traumatic brain injury [10.11], hydrocephalus [12], or metabolic abnormalities [13]. A child with CVI may have a normal to near-normal ability to detect details in what he or she sees, but the child may be completely unaware of what he or she is seeing [14]. Early brain damage is frequently diffuse and affects multiple brain functions, resulting in concomitant neurological disorders such as seizures, intellectual disability, and cerebral palsy, which may exacerbate the detrimental effects of CVI on cognitive, motor, and social development [9,15]. Introduction Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) refers to a broad range of bilateral visual and perceptual impairments caused by dysfunction, anomaly, or injury to the brain’s retinogeniculate visual pathways and centers, speciϐically the optic radiations, occipital cortices, and visual associative areas, in any combination or degree, and oculomotor control, which is more profound if the thalamus is affected [1,2]. Cerebral visual impairment, which is already the leading cause of low vision in children in developed countries, is becoming more common in low-income countries as medical technology improves the survival of children who suffer from severe neurological conditions during the perinatal period [3,4]. CVI has the potential to affect at least 2.4% of children [5]. Because