Eye Problems Common in Children with Hearing Loss

Children born with hearing loss are as much as three times more likely to have vision problems. Researchers looked at 77 children born with hearing loss. About a third had an eye problem of some kind. Of those with a genetic disorder, about half had vision problems and among those without a genetic disorder, about a quarter suffered from some eye problem. The most common type of eye problem was outward or inward deviation of the eye, followed by disorders of refraction such as nearsightedness and farsightedness. The researchers from the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware say children with hearing loss should also undergo an eye exam. Details are in the Archives of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery.