A
congenital cataract is opacification of the lens that occurs in the
fetus at some time during pregnancy.
Although there are many diseases and inherited disorders that can lead to congenital cataracts, the actual incidence of congenital cataracts is low. Sometimes these things just happen. The odds of it happening are slim, and the odds are extremely slim that two siblings will develop cataracts, especially congenitally.
This is a partial list of possible causes of congenital cataracts:
galactosemia (the inability to break down galactose sugar)
Lowe syndrome
congenital rubella syndrome
Sieman's syndrome
Down syndrome
Pierre-Robin syndrome
hereditary congenital cataracts
Hallerman-Streiff syndrome
cerebrohepatorenal syndrome
Trisomy 13
Conradi syndrome
Ectodermal dysplasia
Marinesco-Sjogren syndrome
Note: Sometimes, no cause can be identified.
In many of these causes, cataracts are only one of the complications of the disease.
Symptoms are opacity of the lens, often evident at birth without special viewing equipment and appearing as a whitish discoloration in an otherwise normally dark pupil
Signs And Tests:
slit lamp examination by an ophthalmologist
standard eye exam
ultrasonography of the eye
The treatment involves surgical cataract removal followed by placement of an intraocular lens (IOL).
-Adapted from information taken from WebMD