ABSTRACT
Ophthalmology obviously is important for the surveillance and assessment of vision and visual development in the child, but in a childrens hospital it often plays a key role in diagnosis, disease surveillance and timing of therapeutic intervention. This chapter examines the paediatrician to understand these many roles. Nanophthalmos is an uncommon developmental anomaly. The eye is small in its overall dimensions but is not affected by other gross developmental defects nor accompanied by other systemic congenital anomalies. Most patients have a normal best-corrected vision for their age. The late ocular complications seen in nanophthalmos do not occur in simple microphthalmos. Microphthalmos with cyst is a colobomatous malformation that results from a defective closure of the embryonic fissure. Primary anophthalmos due to failure of the outgrowth of the optic vesicle, unassociated with an abnormality of the neural tube, is the most common type. In exophthalmos, the globe sits forward of its normal position.
