Cataracts in children

When compared to adult cataracts, childhood cataracts are much less common with around 200 affected children born each year (1)

• around 3 children of every 10,000 born in the UK each year will be diagnosed with congenital or infantile cataract by their first birthday with two thirds of them being bilateral cataracts
• this figure increases by 1 further child of every 10,000 by 15 years of age (2)

A small number of children may develop cataract later in their childhood which can either be due to

• damage caused by injury or eye surgery for another problem
• cataract which was present at birth but was detected later in life (1)

Lens opacities that are visually significant before 2-3 months of age have much more potential impact on the child's visual development than those acquired later (3)

Cataracts may be associated with multisystem genetic disorders, such as chromosome abnormalities, Lowe syndrome or neurofibromatosis type 2 (4)

Paediatric cataract can be:

• congenital - hereditary/genetic, intrauterine infection related e.g - TORCH
• developmental - genetic, metabolic e.g. - galactokinase deficiency
• acquired - traumatic, post radiotherapy

Reference:

• 1. Childhood Cataract Network 2008. Beginners guide
• 2. Rahi JS, Dezateux C; British Congenital Cataract Interest Group. Measuring and interpreting the incidence of congenital ocular anomalies: lessons from a national study of congenital cataract in the UK. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2001;42(7):1444-8
• 3. Royal College of Ophthalmologists 20010. Cataract surgery guidelines
• 4. Shiels A, Hejtmancik JF. Genetic origins of cataract. Arch Ophthalmol. 2007;125(2):165-73