Introduction:

Visual screening in children is an assessment that should be performed by the primary care physician to detect diminished visual acuity or risk factors that may interfere with an appropriate development of the eye and visual system. In the visual screening, visual acuity, ocular alignment and the presence of structural ocular anomalies should be assessed.

Methods:

A literature review about strategies to perform an adequate pediatric visual examination by general physicians and pediatricians for early detection of visual problems in children was carried out.

Results:

Visual disorders are one of the main causes of disability in children, being the main risk factors uncorrected refractive errors, strabismus and congenital cataracts, that can leave irreversible sequels if they are not detected on time, being those disorders identified through visual screening.

Conclusions:

Whenever the visual acuity is detected below the expected for the patient’s age, poor fixation and/or follow after 3 months, muscle imbalance, alteration of the red reflex, etc., the child should be referred to a visual health professional to prevent permanent visual loss.

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