Cape Town - While the incidence of primary congenital glaucoma is around one in about every 10 000 live births, Tygerberg Hospital is raising awareness, as untreated cases are a major cause of childhood blindness.
Under this year’s World Glaucoma Week theme, The world is bright, save your sight, the hospital encouraged parents to ensure their children had regular eye and optic nerve checks.
This could help with early detection of primary congenital, which could help preserve sight.
A paediatric ophthalmologist at the hospital, Dr Helga Abrahamse-Pillay, explained: “If children do not receive treatment, they will go blind. Children also need lifelong follow- ups so that they can receive timeous intervention to try and maintain useful vision.”
Glaucoma that causes blindness accounts for 5% of all the blind children in the world.
Primary congenital glaucoma is a rare genetic disease caused by abnormalities in the aqueous (water in the front part of the eye) outflow mechanisms.
This causes high-water pressure in the eye.
Children affected by this disease often complain of light sensitivity, have teary eyes and often keep their eyes closed.
They also have eyes that appear overly large.
The treatment of primary congenital glaucoma is primarily surgical.
If the cornea is clear enough, angle surgery is done by making a small cut in the cornea and then using different methods to make a direct communication between the abnormal outflow channel (trabecular meshwork) and the collector channel (Schlemm’s canal).
The gonioscopy assisted transluminal trabeculotomy (GATT) is one of these procedures.
The first paediatric GATT operation was done at Tygerberg Hospital last year on one-year-old Gift Mabuya from Khayelitsha, who had sustained high pressures that were not reducing.
Caroline Mtati, Gift’s mother, said: “At first I was scared for the operation that my child had to undergo, but after consultation with the hospital team, my fears were set aside. I am so glad my son has a chance of seeing clearer in the future. But after everything, God is great, and thank you to Dr Abrahamse-Pillay and her team as well.”
Dr Abrahamse-Pillay said that they needed to fight for vision for 70 to 80 years in children and need to be aggressive in “management as blind children in low to middle income countries traditionally do not flourish”.
“Baby Gift has had a great outcome with his pressures dropping from the mid-40s to 14 in both eyes, with just one surgery per eye. He has had a refraction for glasses and is awaiting his glasses to prevent amblyopia. We will continue to monitor him to ensure that he has the best possible outcome and refer him for adjunctive therapy as the need arises,” Abrahamse-Pillay added.
Cape Times