Objective:

Background:

Visual snow (VS) is the visual perception of enumerable tiny dots in the visual field resembling static on a television screen. If patients experience these symptoms >3 months, along with at least two other positive visual symptoms including palinopsia, entopic phenomenon, photophobia and nyctalopia, they meet criteria for visual snow syndrome (VSS). In previous studies on VS/VSS, many patients describe experiencing these symptoms “as long as they can remember” but the prevalence in children has yet to be elucidated. The goal of our study was to determine the prevalence of VS and VSS in the pediatric population.

Design/Methods:

1600 children were surveyed using a 23-question online survey of VS/VSS symptoms and migraine symptoms based on ICHD-3 criteria. Recruitment: emails were sent to parents of children ages 5-17 seen in all pediatric patient visits from 1/2021-5/2024 at our institution with additional announcements in community advertisements and school flyers. Emails and announcements contained survey instructions/access.

Results:

Of the survey respondents, 1324 answered the requisite VS questions and were included in data analysis. 412/1324 (31%) reported seeing dots, and 135/1324 (10%, CI 8.6-12%) reported seeing dots “most/all the time” for >3 months (criteria for VS). Additionally, 590/1263 (46.7%) reported palinopsia; 221/1251 (17.7%) reported nyctalopia; almost one-fourth of children reported photophobia without headaches “always” 159/1251 (12.7%) or “a lot” of time 250/1251 (20%). In total, of the 1319 respondents, 114 (8.6%, CI 7.2-10.3%); met criteria for visual snow syndrome with a mean age 13.7 y.o. (SD = 3.2). Migraine was reported in 77% of patients with VS and 79% of those who met criteria for VSS.

Conclusions:

Based on our survey, the prevalence of VS in children aged 5-17 is 10% and the prevalence of VSS is 8.6%.