Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus

Emory's pediatric ophthalmologists treat children with cataracts, glaucoma, strabismus (crossed eyes), ptosis (drooping eyelid), retinoblastoma (retinal tumors) and vision errors, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism. Because good vision in childhood is essential to the proper development of vision into adulthood, we created a dedicated center for pediatric patients, the Georgia Lions Children's Eye Care Center. This center cares for children through all phases of diagnosis and treatment, providing genetic testing, the latest diagnostic capabilities and the most advanced medical and surgical treatments available for pediatric eye diseases.

The Emory Eye Center provides more services for children than any other eye center in Georgia. Emory's pediatric ophthalmologists provide the core of children's eye services, while its retina, cornea, glaucoma, neuro-ophthalmology and oculoplastic specialists round out the care that children receive. This team can manage virtually any childhood vision problem, providing services from general eye care and eyeglasses to the diagnosis and treatment of the most complex eye diseases.

The Emory Eye Center's pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus section cares for children through all phases of diagnosis and treatment, providing genetic testing, the latest diagnostic capabilities and the most advanced medical and surgical treatments available for pediatric eye diseases. Its pediatric ophthalmologists treat children with cataracts, glaucoma, strabismus (crossed eyes), ptosis (drooping eyelid), retinoblastoma (a cancer of the retina) and vision errors, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness and astigmatism.

The Emory Eye Center has teamed up with the Georgia Lions Clubs and the Lions Lighthouse Foundation to create the Georgia Lions Children's Eye Care Center. The Lions have helped fund important genetic research. The center provides genetic evaluation, counseling and research for families with inherited eye disease, such as congenital glaucoma, cataracts or retinoblastoma. The center's goal is to help families diagnose and treat these diseases early before they actually lose vision. The Lions also have funded a digital camera program that can screen children for basic vision disorders without having the youngsters actually travel to Atlanta for an eye exam. The center eventually hopes to have adequate funding to form a program that will screen every school-age child in the state for vision problems.

Because good vision in childhood is essential to the proper development of vision into adulthood, Emory's pediatric ophthalmologists and other specialists have advanced treatments for disorders that affect primarily infants and young children. The accomplishments of these experts range from developing new and highly successful surgical treatments for pediatric glaucoma to laser treatments for retinopathy of prematurity, a blinding disease of the retina that affects premature babies. Pioneering laboratory research has resulted in the discovery of a gene defect that causes a certain kind of childhood blindness. A new camera at Emory has helped retina specialists better diagnose and treat retinoblastoma, a vision-threatening, life-threatening cancer that strikes infants and young children.

From birth to age 2, the eyes grow very rapidly and visual acuity stabilizes and sharpens as the child matures - a process that is critical to good vision later in childhood and adulthood. This process is disrupted in children whose vision is blocked from congenital cataract. Researchers at Emory are looking at the feasibility and safety of removing the cataract in the eye's lens and replacing it with a synthetic intraocular lens that compensates for the visual changes in a child's growing eyes. If it receives adequate funding, Emory will be the national headquarters of a multicenter clinical trial comparing the use of this intraocular lens with contact lenses for infants with cataract.

Since it can be tough to get kids to sit still, especially during sensitive medical procedures, specialists at Emory have developed a better way to treat pediatric glaucoma. Glaucoma causes the eye to build up fluid and pressure that can destroy the optic nerve - and vision. With adults, surgeons can open a drainage hole in the wall of the eye, and control rapid draining by cutting the sutures one at a time over a period of several weeks using an in-office laser. Because children can't remain motionless during the removal procedures, Emory glaucoma specialists have developed better tools and modified the standard techniques to treat glaucoma. Their procedure is better than conventional methods because it requires only one surgery instead of three and significantly reduces the likelihood of later developing scar tissue and nearsightedness.

Emory helps arrange care for children with blinding eye diseases who have family or social problems that prevent them from receiving adequate care. For example, children with retinopathy of prematurity, the most common blinding disease in premature infants, often need regular treatments by an ophthalmologist to protect their vision. Some of the same social issues that contribute to prematurity (such as poverty, inadequate insurance, lack of transportation, etc.) also make it difficult for them to receive adequate eye care during childhood. Since there is a small window of time during which these children can be treated successfully to prevent blindness, a coordinator at Emory tracks them down and assists their parents with transportation and other matters to get them to their follow-up appointments. Since this program was initiated and funded, in part, by the Lions of Georgia, the center has not had a single child lose vision because of neglected follow-up.

To make appointments for the section of pediatric ophthalmology and strabismus,
please call 404-778-3431.

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