Myopia They call a visual defect, which is characterized by its good acuity at a close distance and bad at a distant one. It can be congenital when a child already at birth has impaired vision in the distance, and acquired after birth, usually after 7 years.
Depending on the course, myopia is:
- not progressive, in which the disease is characterized by the preservation of vision for a long time at a strictly fixed mark;
- progressive, in which vision is reduced by one diopter per year or more.
Myopia is a very serious disease, since with constant stretching of the eyeball, irreversible physiological changes occur in the eye and a significant decrease in vision occurs. These disorders lead to pathological changes in the fundus, for example, to peripheral dystrophy of the retina, and, as a consequence, to its detachment and complete blindness.
Myopia (myopia) - causes
The most common cause of myopia is lengthening of the anteroposterior axis of the eye. Less commonly, the excessive refractive power of its optical media leads to myopia. Factors contributing to the development of myopia include intense visual work at close range with weakened accommodation and a hereditary predisposition.
If these factors are exacerbated by weakness of the sclera, then this leads to a progressive stretching of the eyeball, causing pathological changes in the vascular and retinal membranes. Common infections and intoxications, endocrine shifts and metabolic disorders may be the cause of weakened accommodation and sclera extensibility.
Myopia (myopia) - symptoms
The main symptom of myopia is a decrease in visual acuity in the distance, in which it improves by putting negative lenses on the eyes.
As a rule, the onset of myopia occurs in early school age. However, it tends to intensify over time, especially if it is not treated properly. Sometimes, with a pathological lengthening of the eyeball, repeated hemorrhages can occur in this area, leading to rupture and detachment of the retina, clouding of the vitreous body. If myopia cannot be corrected with glasses in time, then the excessive work of the internal rectus muscles and the lack of an impulse to accommodation can upset binocular vision and lead to divergent strabismus.
Myopia (myopia) - diagnosis
To diagnose myopia, visual acuity is first determined using special lenses that correct myopia.
To confirm the diagnosis, you can use skioscopy, which consists in observing a moving light spot in the illuminated pupil during rotation of the ophthalmoscopic mirror. If the patient has farsightedness, myopia is less than 1.0 diopter or he has normal vision, then the movement of the light spot occurs in one direction; with myopia greater than 1.0 diopter, its movement occurs in a different direction.
Also, for the purpose of diagnosis, refractometry of the eye is performed, that is, the measurement of its refraction using refractometers.
Myopia (myopia) - treatment and prevention
There are both surgical and non-surgical methods for treating myopia. Non-surgical methods include special exercises aimed at training the ciliary muscle. A high degree of myopia with a complicated course also requires the implementation of a general sparing regimen: elimination of physical stress (weight lifting, jumping, etc.) and visual overload. For complications such as retinal detachment and complicated cataracts, surgical treatment is necessary.
In general, surgical treatment of myopia is very common today. Such operations are performed to strengthen the stretching posterior segment of the eyeball and reduce the refractive power of the eye.
With high myopia, the main goal of treatment is to prevent its progression and development of complications. Here, the main role is given to scleroplastic operations, which are the application of a kind of bandage to the posterior surface of the eye to prevent further stretching of the sclera in this section. If this operation is successful, the progression of myopia stops or noticeably slows down, and visual acuity may increase slightly.
Prevention of myopia comes down to limiting visual load, observing all the requirements of visual hygiene, training the eye muscle with weakened accommodation, etc.
