MORGANTOWN - Infants and children will receive better care at the West Virginia University Eye Institute thanks to a donation from Bill and Erna Atkinson.
The Atkinsons' donation of $60,000 made possible the purchase of a Clarity Medical Systems RetCam for neonatal and pediatric retinal imaging. The device entered clinical use at WVU March 1.
The RetCam enhances the technology available at WVU to diagnose and treat eye problems in infants and children, including trauma from child abuse and retinopathy of prematurity, a potentially blinding disorder affecting infants born prematurely.
Eye Institute Chairwoman Judie Charlton explained the advantages of the technology.
'For retinopathy of prematurity, if it's not accurately diagnosed early, those children can progress to total blindness,' Charlton said.
'For the child abuse cases, those eye problems frequently clear on their own with time,' she continued. 'If the child is particularly young, the eye could become lazy before the blood in the eye clears. But probably the more important thing for the abused children is to have definitive documentation that the trauma existed for future trial if necessary.'
Although diagnosis and treatment of these cases already took place at WVU, the camera allows for a faster evaluation of the retina.
'It's more comfortable for the child, and it's not stimulating the child as much so their heart rate doesn't go up,' Charlton said.
In addition, observations were documented in the past through hand drawings, while the technology allows for more accurate and detailed photographs to be placed in the chart.
Charlton believes the RetCam will help document even slight progression of disease and also provide a more complete transfer of information among doctors treating a child. Twelve to 15 premature infants each week will benefit from the camera, she said, as well as 12 to 15 infants who have suffered child abuse each year.
After growing up in West Virginia and recently moving back, the Atkinsons expressed happiness at the opportunity to support life-changing care for the state's most vulnerable residents.
'Dr. Charlton showed us the eye problems of preemies, and that sort of got to us,' Bill Atkinson said. 'We just wanted to help children with eye problems.'
As the only center for specialized pediatric vision care in West Virginia, the WVU Eye Institute diagnoses and cares for babies and children from all 55 counties in the Mountain State. For information about the WVU Eye Institute, visit their website at www.wvueye.com.
