Other known environmental conditions that have led to anophthalmia are maternal vitamin A deficiency, exposure to X-rays during gestation, solvent abuse, and exposure to thalidomide. Chromosome 14
An interstitial deletion of chromosome 14 has been known to occasionally be the source of anophthalmia. The deletion of this region of chromosome has also been associated with patients having a small tongue, and high arched palate, developmental and growth retardation, undescended testes with a micropenis, and hypothyroidism. The region that has been deleted is region q22.1-q22.3. This confirms that region 22 on chromosome 14 influences the development of the eye. Classifications
There are three classifications for this condition:

Primary anophthalmia is a complete absence of eye tissue due to a failure of the part of the brain that forms the eye. Secondary anophthalmia the eye starts to develop and for some reason stops, leaving the infant with only residual eye tissue or extremely small eyes which can only be seen under close examination. Degenerative anophthalmia the eye started to form and, for some reason, degenerated. One reason for this occurring could be a lack of blood supply to the eye. Prenatal diagnosis
Ultrasounds
Ultrasounds can be used to diagnose anophthalmia during gestation. Due to the resolution of the ultrasound, it is difficult to diagnose it until the second trimester. The earliest time to detect anophthalmia this way is approximately 20 weeks. Amniocentesis
It is possible to diagnose prenatally with amniocentesis, but it may not show a correct negative result. Amniocentesis can only diagnose anophthalmia when there is a chromosomal abnormality.
Epidemiology
Anophthalmia has been reported to be present in 3 out of every 100,000 births. Many instances of anophthalmia also occur with microphthalmia. A recent study in the UK indicated that anophthalmia and microphthalmia had a combined average of 1 in every 10,000 births. The annual rate of occurrence of anophthalmia/microphthalmia in the United States is about 780 children born/year. The most extensive epidemiological survey on this congenital malformation has been carried out by Dharmasena et al. and using English National Hospital Episode Statistics, they calculated the annual incidence of anophthalmia, microphthalmia and congenital malformations of orbit/lacrimal apparatus from 1999 to 2011. According to this study the incidence of congenital anophthalmia ranged from 2.4 (95% CI 1.3 to 4.0) per 100 000 infants in 1999 to 0.4 (0 to 1.3) in 2011. Parents that already have a child who suffers from anophthalmia has a 1 in 8 chance of having another child with anophthalmia. Approximately 2/3 of all cases of anophthalmia are determined to be of genetic basis. Anophthalmia is one of the leading causes of congenital blindness and accounts for 3-11% of blindness in children. Anophthalmia and microphthalmia together make up 1.7-1.8% of reconstructive surgical cases in laboratory of plastic surgery and ocular prostheses.