The long term ophthalmic morbidity of low birth weight children: a review

Low birth weight infants are at greater risk of ophthalmic morbidity compared to children born at term. There are numerous studies detailing the outcome of low birth weight infants and the purpose of this paper is to discuss and summarize these studies, focusing on the long term effects on visual function and the prevalence of strabismus. The variation in study design will be discussed with regard to the subsequent effect on results. Despite the significant variation between studies, they all report an increase in the prevalence of strabismus and reduced visual acuity. This increase in ophthalmic morbidity is due in part to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), but not all ophthalmic morbidity can be attributed to ROP.