[Cataracts and atopic dermatitis in children. A study of 68 patients]

We choose 68 children with diagnosis of atopic dermatitis according to Hanifin's criteria, then they were sent to ophthalmologic exploration and were investigated other clinical data that could be related with ocular disturbances. The positive result for cataracts was found in three patients (4.4%) all of them females, 11, 12 and 18 years old respectively, with around 9 years of the onset of the disease. They were considered as severe according to the same criteria, all of them had familiar history of atopic diseases and tendency to generalize and to present eczematous phase in any moment of the evolution. These findings are similar to those reported by other authors and we remark the importance of recognizing risk factors in patients with this dermatosis to send opportunely to a periodic ophthalmologic evaluation.