Visual Processing in Low Birth Weight and/or Extremely Preterm

Pediatrics published research on the visual processing of 228 adolescents with a history of extreme low birth weight (less than 1000g) and/or extremely preterm (less than 28 weeks gestation).  Compared to a control group the extreme low birth weight and/or extreme preterm adolescents  exhibited the following:

• significantly worse visual acuity with habitual correction in both the left and right eyes
• poorer stereopsis and convergence 
• more problems with visual perception after habitual correction. 

Reference: Carly S. Molloy et al.Visual Processing in Adolescents Born Extremely Low Birth Weight and/or Extremely Preterm. Pediatrics peds.2013-0040; published ahead of print August 5, 2013, doi:10.1542/peds.2013-0040