We aimed to identify the etiology and preventable causes of legal blindness and severe visual impairment among young men with recruitment period in Bitlis and nearby region in this study. Medical records of 251 male patients with legal blindness (best corrected visual acuity <0.05) and severe visual impairment (0.05≤ best corrected visual acuity <0.1) who were examined at Tatvan Military Hospital between 2005-2014 were studied retrospectively. Legal blindness and severe visual impairment was binocular in 77 (30.7%) cases, and monocular in 174 (69.3%) cases. The most common etiology of binocular blindness and severe visual impairment were congenital fundus dystrophies (n=44, 57.1%), congenital cataract (n=15, 19.4%), and keratoconus (n=7, 9%) respectively. The most common etiology of monocular blindness and severe visual impairment were penetrating eye injury (n=77, 21.3%), strabismic or anisometropic ambliyopia (n=43, 24.7%), and closedglobe injury (n=26, %14.9) respectively. This study emphasizes that most of the leading causes of legal blindness and severe visual impairment are preventable with appropriate educational and preventive screening health programs.
Keywords: Legal blindness, visual impairment, amblyopia, trauma
