Brain visual impairment in childhood: mini review.

Cerebral visual impairment (CVI) is one of the leading causes of severe visual impairment in childhood. This article was written to highlight any new knowledge related to cerebral visual impairment in childhood.The international literature was searched to describe the type of visual, oculomotor and / or visuo-perceptual disturbances and to discuss the prognosis. CVI children show a wide range of visual disturbances. These could be either visual, oculomotor, perceptual or a combination of all. The severity of CVI depends on the time, location and extend of the brain damage.The visual function seems to improve in CVI children, especially in the cortically damaged, mainly due to brain plasticity. The increased survival rate of very premature infants during the last decades has increased the incidence of CVI in childhood. Better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of CVI, early diagnosis and early intervention could lead to a better quality of life of these children.