EPOS

European Paediatric Ophthalmological Society

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02 Pediatric Ophthalmology, An American Perspective

Traboulsi, E.I.
Cleveland Clinic Foundation / Cole Eye Institute

Pediatric ophthalmology is about taking care of children's eyes and visual system in the context of their total being; and about explaining diagnostic and management plans to anxious parents in such a way that they entrust the practitioner with their flesh and blood.

Since Costenbader, more than sixty years ago, devoted his ophthalmology practice in Washington, D.C. exclusively to children, the field has become firmly established in American and international medicine. A marriage with the management of adult strabismus became inevitable because of the expertise of those in the specialty with the workings of the eye muscles and their neurological control. The American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmology (AAPO) became the AAPO and S (for strabismus). More than 30 fellowship programs are currently accredited by AAPOS to train pediatric ophthalmologists in the USA and Canada. The yearly meeting of the Association draws hundreds of participants from around the world and provides a forum to present research and discuss clinical and practice issues.

Awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment of amblyopia has renewed interest in vision screening and in the reduction of one of the most common causes of unilateral blindness in adults. Clinical experience and the development of new surgical techniques, finer and more specialized instruments and sutures has made strabismus surgery easier and more predictable. The etiology of most retinal dystrophies that affect children has been unraveled through the power of molecular genetics and therapy for some is in the horizon. Technological advances and individual interests in specific areas of pediatric ophthalmology have given birth to pediatric anterior segment surgeons, retinologists, geneticists, glaucomatologists and plastic surgeons, all of whom add to the services provided by general pediatric ophthalmologists to those children who are fortunate enough to have access to their specialized services.

American and European pediatric ophthalmologists should put their hands together to advance the field of pediatric ophthalmology through clinical and basic science research, and to provide specialized ophthalmic care for children of the world through teaching and the training of ophthalmologists from all countries.