SUMMARY

The causes of blindness in developing countries are not fully known and may vary widely from place to place. In an attempt to verify these causes, in a southern brazilian state, we have examined 121 patients from an institute for the blind, being 77 males and 44 females. Patients visual acuity were as follow: NLP= 66 patients, LP= 13, HM= 20, CF= 19, unknown= 3. Bilateral enucleation in 3 cases and unilateral in 11. Phthisis OU in 16 and unilateral in 8 patients. The causes of blindness were: multiple congenital ocular malformation in 58 eyes, congenital glaucoma= 40, ocular infection or inflamation= 26, optic atrophy= 26, complications due to cataract surgery= 22, trauma= 20, retinitis pigmentosa= 14, corneal opacities= 12, tumors= 4, congenital cataract= 2, retrolental fibroplasia= 2, retinal detachment= 2, anophthalmos= 2, unknown= 12. Parental consanguinity was present in 17 cases. Seven patients have possibilities of recovering vision with advanced techniques. These results suggest that many of these cases were preventable and the incidence of complications in cataract surgery, specially congenital cataracts, was surprisingly high.