Abstract :Objective: We aimed to reveal the causes of blindness in patients who applied to a health board of our hospital which provides service to a socioeconomically depressed region. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the records of 314 patients who were blind in at least one eye were recorded among 2214 patients who were referred to our hospital's health board between February 2016 and January 2018 for evaluation by the health board to receive a disability report from our hospital. Results: In this study, we determined that 185 (58.9%) patients were female, 129 (41.1%) patients were male and the mean patient age was 70.84 ± 19.15 years. The most common causes of blindness were cataract seen in 104 (33.1%) patients, phthisis eyes in 53 (16.9%) patients, optic atrophy in 40 (12.7%) patients, corneal opacities in 35 (11.1%) patients and diabetic retinopathy in 20 (6.4%) patients. Conclusions: Both in our study and in other studies conducted in our region, preventable blindness such as cataract, phthisis and corneal opacity have been detected at high rates. Therefore we believe that more awareness and effort may be needed to reduce such preventable blindness in our region. Keywords : Blindness, Cataract
