J Korean Ophthalmol Soc.  2002 Jan;43(1):136-142.

Clinical Aspects of 273 Patients with Visual Disability

• Kim KH
• Oh TS
• Jang SD

Abstract

PURPOSE: To report clinical features of visually disabled people by newly revised legal blindness criteria.
METHODS
A prospective evaluation of all blind registrations was conducted at Dongguk University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2000. Detailed ophthalmologic evaluations were performed and the review of the diagnosis was done in order to find out the cause of the visual disability.
RESULTS
There were 273 patients (343 eyes) for newly registered blindness. Of these, 190 (69.6%, 190/273) were men and mean age was 53.8+/-15.48. The sixth degree visual disability was most common (74.0%, 202/273) according to the newly revised legal blindness criteria, and most common cause of blindness was trauma (38.2%, 131/343). Government office advised 122 patients (44.7%, 122/273) to register legal blindness .
CONCLUSION
Further nationwide epidemiological survey for legal visual disability is required by standardized classification and criteria.

Keyword

Blindness; Visual disability

MeSH Terms

Blindness
Classification
Diagnosis
Humans
Male
Prospective Studies