[Etiology and occupational rehabilitation of late vision disorders]

Advising patients about means of rehabilitation is an important task for the ophthalmologist. There is a lack of up-to-date studies on the outcome of job measures for various ophthalmic disorders. In a retrospective study the charts of 334 patients (October 86-November 89) at the rehabilitation centre for adults with late onset visual impairment (Veitshöchheim) were analyzed. Retinitis pigmentosa, optic atrophy, diabetic retinopathy and refractive anomalies were the most frequent diseases (13-19%). In comparison to the other disorders the incidence of diabetic retinopathy is increasing. Other ophthalmic diseases (mainly traumatic injuries), macular degeneration, retinal detachment and primary and secondary cataract made up 6-9% of all cases. About half of the patients were legally blind (visual acuity 1/50 or worse), 20% severely visually handicapped with a visual acuity of 0.02-0.05, 24% had a visual acuity of 0.05-0.3. Regarding the age distribution the group of patients between 30 and 39 years of age was the largest followed by the group of the 25-29-year-old and, last, the group of the 20-24-year-old patients. Due to the high proportion of blind and severely visually disabled a basic rehabilitation (including mobility training, learning the Braille letters) was necessary in 62% of cases. The most popular job measure was the field of massage.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)