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Cataracts

Background

About two hundred children a year are born in the UK with opacity of the lens of one or both eyes - a cataract.

Most children born with cataracts are otherwise healthy and many will have other family members born with cataract. However, in some cases, cataract is a sign of a syndrome: Down syndrome, Lowe syndrome, Nance-Horan syndrome, deafblindness, Galactosaemia, Marinesco-Sjögren syndrome, Cockayne syndrome, Hallermann-Streiff-Francois syndrome, Pollitt syndrome, Werner syndrome, Rothmund-Thomson syndrome, Zellweger syndrome or Conradi-Hunermann syndrome.

If cataract is the only abnormality of the eye and the child is treated within the first few months of life, the prognosis for vision is good. It is expected that the child will attend mainstream school and read, although often will have difficulty with distance vision for the white board.

How is it treated? View How is it treated?

Medical text written December 1999 by Miss Isabelle Russell-Eggitt FRCS FRCOphth. Last updated September 2004 by Miss Isabelle Russell-Eggitt FRCS FRCOphth, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK.

 

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