[Importance of the ophthalmological evaluation in newborns].

OBJECTIVE To verify the existence of ocular diseases in the first 48 hours of life of newborns and relate it to the clinical suspicious of pediatricians. METHODS A prospective study was performed. All infants that were born between July and December of 2000 were evaluated in the nursery of Hospital Universitário Evangélico de Curitiba (HUEC). Six hundred sixty-seven newborns were evaluated through a protocol by residents and tutors of ophthalmology, regardless of pediatricianś suspicious of ocular disorder. The examination consisted of inspection, oblique illumination, evaluation of ocular deviation and direct ophthalmoscopy (red reflex) in all patients. RESULTS Among all examined newborns, 3.75% showed some ocular disease. The most frequent problem was corneal opacity. The ocular diseases were not noticed by pediatricians, neonatologists and parents in fifty-six per cent of the cases presenting some problem. CONCLUSIONS This study showed that many ocular disorders presented at birth are not noticed by pediatricians (56%), which highlights the importance of ophthalmological evaluation in all newborns as a routine examination in the first 48 hours of life.