Retina Service

The service was established nearly 30 years ago under the leadership of Anne B. Fulton, MD, a worldwide authority in pediatric retinal and visual development, normal and abnormal. Over the years, the team has developed special expertise in diagnosis and care of retinal disorders that affect infants and children. Although these conditions are uncommon, they are seen here in large volume because young visually impaired patients come to our center from around the New England region and beyond. Many of these children are followed, sometimes for more than a decade, contributing to our understanding of visual development and the course of visual disorders of early onset.

Patients referred here may be experiencing unexplained loss of vision and/or other symptoms such as night blindness, loss of peripheral vision, nystagmus (an involuntary oscillatory movement of the eyes), or an abnormal sensitivity to or intolerance of light (photophobia). Their diagnoses include, but are not limited to:

• Albinism
• Bardet-Beidl Syndrome
• Congenital Stationary Night Blindness
• Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI)
• Juvenile Macular Degeneration
• Leber Congenital Amaurosis
• Retinal degenerations in infancy and childhood
• Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP)
• Retinitis Pigmentosa
• Incontinentia Pigmenti
• Mitochondrial disorders