Longitudinal assessment of visual development in non-syndromic craniosynostosis: a 1-year pre- and post-surgical study.

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 increased 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 were not frequent in infants with non-syndromic craniosynostosis who underwent surgical correction. Approximately half of the patients had some visual abnormalities before surgery, which subsequently improved, showing a delayed visual maturation rather than persistent abnormalities.

Visual function in infants with non-syndromic craniosynostosis.

The aim of this study was to assess various aspects of visual function in children with single-suture, non-syndromic craniosynostosis. Thirty-eight infants (28 males, 10 females; age range 3.5-13mo, mean age 7mo, 11 with plagiocephaly, 12 with trigonocephaly, and 15 with scaphocephaly), were assessed with a battery of tests specifically designed to assess various aspects of visual function in infancy. Thirty-two of the 38 infants had at least one abnormality on one of the aspects of visual function assessed. Abnormal eye movements were found in eight infants of the whole cohort and were mainly found in infants with plagiocephaly (6/11), who also had frequent visual field abnormalities (5/11). In contrast, fixation shift, an aspect of visual function related to the integrity of parietal lobes, was more frequently abnormal in patients with scaphocephaly. Our results suggest that the presence and severity of visual impairment is related to the type of craniosynostosis. Follow-up studies after surgical correction are needed to evaluate the possible beneficial effects of reconstructive surgery on visual function.