[Visual evoked potentials and electroretinogram in pediatrics. Concept methodology and clinical applications]

Since the first visual evoked potentials were obtained in the early 1940s, many important technical advances have been developed helping to produce more correct responses. One of the most important has been the incorporation of computers in the 1960s. This allowed the improvement in the relation signal/noise and consequently the responses are much more reliables technically. Also the improvement in the stimulators and electrodes necessaries for this test. However, all this advances introduced the use of the physical and technical concepts and magnitudes that sometimes fall outside the strict field of the medicine.

Therefore we have divided this work into three very different parts. The first part is dedicated to remembering and defining a series of physical concepts and their usefulness in the obtention of VEPs and ERGs specially in the physical process witch the proper use are basic to attain correct responses. In the second part we will discuss VEPs and ERGs in pediatric patients under the age of two years., concentrating basically on the every day specific problems witch appear on treating young patients. Finally we will review briefly their most frequent clinical applications.