Abstract

We have developed a hand-held video keratoscope (HVK) that is appropriate for use with infants and young children. We report the design features and performance characteristics of this instrument. It is difficult to measure corneal astigmatism in very young children using conventional equipment. Mandel (1) and Howland (2) developed still-photographic methods to image the corneal light reflections of either a ring keratoscope (1) or discrete set of point sources (2). We have previously described a remote keratometer (3) that permits simultaneous, binocular measurement of the corneal curvature, but it is too bulky to use in the field. Subsequently, a hand-held keratoscope has become available. The Alcon Portable Auto-keratometer (PAK) is convenient to use and accurate, and works well with three to five year old children, but does not work well with infants (4). We were encouraged by Wood et al (5) reporting their success in measuring infants with a hand-held video keratoscope. Our experience with infants led us to believe that frame-by-frame inspection would permit measurement of infants.

© 1996 Optical Society of America