Longitudinal assessment of visual development in non-syndromic craniosynostosis: a one-year pre- and post-surgical study
Gessica Vasco 1, Giovanni Baranello 1, Daniela Ricci 1, Annabella Salerni 2, Giampiero Tamburrini 3, Rita Amante 4, Anna Dickman 5, Concezio Di Rocco 3, Francesco Velardi 6 and Eugenio Mercuri 1*
1 Pediatric Neurology Unit, Catholic University, Rome, Italy
2 Department of Ophthalmology, Catholic University, Rome, Italy
3 Paediatric Neurosurgery, Catholic University, Rome, Italy
4 Paediatric Neurosurgery, Pediatric Hospital "Bambino Gesù" Rome, Italy
5 Department of Ophthalmology , Catholic University, Rome, Italy
6 Paediatric Neurosurgery, Pediatric Hospital "Bambino Gesù", Rome, Italy
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: e.mercuri{at}ic.ac.uk.
Accepted 24 April 2008
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Objective: to investigate visual function pre- and post surgery in children with single suture non-syndromic craniosynostosis
Design: twenty nine infants (12 with sagittal synostosis, 10 with trigonocephaly and 7 with anterior plagiocephaly) were longitudinally evaluated using a battery of tests assessing various aspects of visual function, including ocular behaviour, acuity, visual fields and fixation shift. All infants were assessed before surgery and 2, 6 and 12 months after surgery.
Results: before surgery only 16% of infants had completely normal visual function, while on the assessment performed 12 months after surgery the number with normal results on all the tests raised to 65%. The only abnormalities found 12 months after surgical correction were mainly found on abnormal oculomotor behaviour in infants with plagiocephaly.
Conclusion: abnormalities of visual function are not frequent in infants with non syndromic craniosynostosis who underwent surgical correction. Approximately half of the patients had some visual abnormalities before surgery, that subsequently improved, showing a delayed visual maturation rather than persistent abnormalities.
