What is low vision ?
Low vision means that even with regular glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery, people find everyday tasks difficult to do. Reading the mail, shopping, cooking, seeing the TV, and writing can seem challenging.

Millions of people around the world lose some of their vision every year. Irreversible vision loss is most common among people over age 65.

Is losing vision just part of getting older ?
No. Some normal changes in our eyes and vision occur as we get older. However, these changes usually don't lead to low vision. Most people develop low vision because of eye diseases and health conditions like macular degeneration, cataract, glaucoma, and diabetes. A few people develop vision loss after eye injuries from birth defects. While vision that's lost usually cannot be restored, many people can make the most of the vision they have.

Your eye care professional can tell the difference between normal changes in the aging eye and those caused by eye diseases.

How do I know if I have low vision ?
There are many signs that can signal vision loss. For example, even with your regular glasses, do you have difficulty:

++ Recognizing faces of friends and relatives?
++ Doing things that require you to see well up close, like reading, cooking, 
     sewing, or fixing things around the house?
++ Picking out and matching the color of your clothes?
++ Doing things at work or home because lights seem dimmer than they used
     to?
++ Reading street and bus signs or the names of stores?

Vision changes like these could be early warning signs of eye disease. Usually, the earlier your problem is diagnosed, the better the chance of successful treatment and keeping your remaining vision.

How do I know when to get an eye exam ?
Regular dilated eye exams should be part of your routine health care. However, if you believe your vision has recently changed, you should see your eye care professional as soon as possible.

Keep in mind that many people require more than one visual device. They may need magnifying lenses for close up viewing, and telescopic lenses for seeing in the distance. Some people may need to learn how to get around in their neighborhoods.

If your eye care professional says, "Nothing more can be done for your vision," ask about vision rehabilitation. These programs offer a wide range of services, such as low vision evaluations and special training to use visual and adaptive devices. They also offer guidance for modifying your home as well as group support from others with low vision.

Investigate and Learn... Be persistent. Remember that you are your best health advocate. Investigate and learn as much as you can, especially if you have been told that you may lose more vision. It is important that you ask questions about vision rehabilitation and get answers. Many resources are available to help you. Write down questions to ask your doctor, or take a tape recorder with you. Rehabilitation programs, devices, and technology can help you adapt to vision loss. They may help you keep doing many of the things you did before.

NEW

KERATOCONUS  (cone shaped cornea)

What is keratoconus?
Keratoconus is a common bilateral corneal condition, occurring in more than 1 in 1000 people. The condition typically starts in adolescence and early adulthood.
Keratoconus is a disease with an uncertain cause, and its progression following diagnosis is unpredictable. If afflicting both eyes, the deterioration in vision can affect the patient's ability to drive a car or read normal print. Further progression of the disease may lead to a need for surgery.

Despite its uncertainties, keratoconus can be successfully managed with a variety of clinical and surgical techniques, and often with little or no impairment to the patient's quality of life.

SYMPTOMS

At early stages, the symptoms of keratoconus may be no different from just having the need for spectacle correction. As the disease progresses, the vision deteriorates. Visual acuity becomes impaired at all distances, and night vision is sometimes quite poor. Some individuals have vision in one eye that is markedly worse than that in the other eye. Some develop photophobia (sensitivity to bright light), eye strain from squinting in order to read, or itching in the eye. There is usually little or no sensation of pain. Keratoconus can cause substantial distortion of vision, with multiple images, streaking and sensitivity to light.

DIAGNOSIS

This is usually done by an ophthalmologist with a detailed eye examination. Diagnosing early keratoconus can be tricky, since mild disease often does not show any identifiable signs on slit-lamp examination; however, recent and a more definitive diagnosis can be obtained using corneal topography, in which an automated instrument projects an illuminated pattern onto the cornea and determines its shape from analysis of a digital image. The topographical map reveals distortions or scarring in the cornea, with keratoconus revealed by a characteristic steepness of curvature which is usually below or around the centre of the cornea. The topography record of the degree and extent of the deformation is used for assessing its rate of progression. Unilateral cases tend to be uncommon. Sometimes it’s a mild condition in the better eye, below the limit of clinical detection. It is common for keratoconus to be diagnosed first in one eye and not until later in the other.

At our hospital, we use a very sensitive Topography instrument called the ‘Topolyser’ from Wavelight Inc.

Put Your Eye to the Keyhole !

Cataract is the most common problem that requires eye surgery. Till date there is no drug which has been proven to treat cataract. Surgery to remove cataract is the only effective treatment. In conventional cataract surgery, the cataract is removed as a whole; therefore the size of the incision is large (12-15 mm) and needs 5-7 sutures. Now more advanced techniques have been developed. 

Enter Phacoemulsification
This the current gold standard of cataract surgery. In this technique a 2.8 mm self-sealing tunneled incision is made through which a probe is introduced into the eye. The tip of this probe vibrates fragmenting the cataract into microscopic pieces which are aspirated out of the eye. 

Injecting the Lens
Once the opaque lens of the eye has been removed by cataract surgery, a replacement for the lens is needed to restore the focusing ability of the eye. This is done by planting an artificial intraocular lens into the eye at exactly the same position from where the cataract has been removed. This becomes a permanent part of the eye. Foldable intraocular lens of the eye have revolutionized cataract surgery, as they can be folded and injected into the eye through the 3 mm self-sealing tunnel incision made for the phacoemulsification procedure.

Thus minimally invasive cataract surgery because of the markedly smaller wound size and self healing wound which is secure even without sutures, offers the patient a host of advantages.

Clear Benefits
You can return to normal activity within hours of the procedure as opposed to a few weeks with conventional surgery.

The fast wound healing, minimally induced astigmatism and early stabilization of refraction, offer you quick and easy visual rehabilitation with better vision. The keyhole eye surgery are routine procedure done at Shroff Eye Hospital, Mumbai.

For Detailed Dossier on Eye Care Treatment, please write to us at  mktg@mediescapes.com