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Biomedical subjects

M H Bremner

Publications and source records attributed to M H Bremner.

11 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1990

The use of spectacles in the treatment of congenital esotropia and amblyopia--a financial hazard.

Congenital esotropia and amblyopia are treated during the 'sensitive period' of brain-eye development. Not all children require spectacles for treatment of these conditions but when refractive errors are present, correct and properly fitting spectacles play an important part. This prospective survey shows that one-third of the under three-year-old children wearing spectacles require surgery for esotropia, and that one-third of all children under eight years of age wearing spectacles need amblyopia treatment. It is uninterrupted treatment in these age groups that produce results. Approximately 50% of children wearing spectacles in the four-year-old and under group need a second or third pair of spectacles within a 12-month period. If these spectacles become unsuitable because of dense scratches, changed refraction or poor fit because of increasing P D, then the treatment is interrupted and the visual acuity is likely to regress. Many families cannot afford a second or third pair of spectacles within the 12-month period and hospital benefit funds often will not help. The treatment is interrupted. This financial hazard must be overcome.

Amblyopia↗
PubMed1984

Visual acuity in the primary school child aged four to twelve years: a review of amblyopia treatment in this age group at Princess Margaret Hospital.

A survey of the incidence in Western Australia of amblyopia assessed through the school vision screening programme and Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) eye clinics shows the figure to be 0.12%, being new cases detected in primary school children each year. Occlusion methods of treatment for amblyopia acceptable in the younger age-group are much less tolerated by both parents and child in the school-age group. The PMH series involving 240 children between the ages of four and 12 years showed that an amblyopic eye with macula or paramacula fixation can be successfully treated up to the age of 10 years without constant occlusion. Also, eccentric fixation can be cured up to the 7th birthday, but no alternative has been found for the mandatory constant occlusion. Medical, developmental and behavioural problems can influence the management and response in the four to twelve-year-old child; if these are not recognized and the child treated as a whole during the critical stages of natural development of the visual system, these children can be left with an unnecessary visual disadvantage for the next 70 years of their life.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Amblyopia in the four to nine year age group. A four-year survey.

A guide to the ophthalmologist in the choice of the older child with amblyopia most likely to respond to active intensive visual stimulation in short bursts is presented. A series of 99 children treated on a CAM vision-stimulator is described. Visual improvement of at least two rows of letters on the Snellen chart was maintained for at least three years after treatment in 62% of these patients aged between five and nine years with visual fixation within 3 degrees of the fovea. Amblyopia following minor trauma or minor pathology also responded well. Children maintaining the visual improvement were those with esophoria up to 13 degrees, those with hypermetropia up to 11.0 D and those with astigmatism of 1.5 D. Also responding well were children with anisometropia with up to 3.0 D of either hypermetropia or astigmatism.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1983

Retinoblastoma in the anterior chamber of the eye.

An uncommon presentation of retinoblastoma in an eleven-year-old boy is discussed. There was no family history of retinoblastoma and the child had never complained of a sore eye. He was not aware that he could not see out of his right eye.

Anterior Chamber↗
PubMed1982

Ocular leukaemia in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia of childhood.

Modern cytotoxic drugs increase the survival rate of children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL): But the eye is a pharmacological sanctuary and after clinical "cure" of the haematological disease the child may be blinded by leukaemic ocular infiltration. This is the history of a child who had had no recurrence of haematological leukaemia for four and a half years but following remission developed central nervous system (CNS) leukaemia followed by leukaemic iridocyclitis in the right eye after 20 months and in the left eye after three years three months from the initial diagnosis of ALL. Prophylactic cranial irradiation is performed on initial haematological diagnosis of ALL. This includes prophylactic irradiation of the posterior segment of the eye and optic nerve. Should this prophylactic irradiation of the posterior segment of the eye and optic nerve be repeated on diagnosis of CNS leukaemia and at specified intervals thereafter with recurrence of CNS leukaemia?

Anterior Chamber↗
PubMed1982

Ocular herpes simplex infections in children.

A survey of "hospitalised" Herpes simplex infections in otherwise normal healthy children under the age of 13 years over a 15 year period between 1964 and 1979 at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. This survey highlighted the unnecessarily high transference rate of Herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection to the under 3 year old within the home environment. There were three hundred and forty (340) cases of non-fatal "hospitalized" HSV infections in the under 3 year old of which sixty three (63) were ocular infections. Over all age groups one hundred and forty five (145) children were hospitalised on one or several occasions with ocular HSV infection. Of these children before reaching the age of 13 years, fifteen (15) developed intraocular HSV infection and twenty seven (27) had a permanent visual acuity of less than 6/12. As a result of this survey the Princess Margaret Hospital motto for the I.Y.D.P. is: "Cuddle but do not kiss your child when you have an acute coldsore"

Adolescent↗