June 6th National “Love Eye Day” is coming. Taking care of your eyes and protecting your eyes is one of the good lifestyles we have been advocating for people of all ages. In the past two months, citizens have more or less increased their use of electronic products. Children have taken online classes, adults have worked from home, and the elderly also like to play with mobile phones. However, using electronic products at close range for a long time will affect the adjustment function of the human eye. The adjustment function represents the ability of the eyes to see both near and far. For a long time, only seeing near and not far may cause blurring when you need to see far. Therefore, when we use our eyes, like a camera lens, we should combine the distance and the nearness, and have a degree of relaxation. This is the scientific and healthy way of using our eyes.
In recent years, the number of cases of “acute acquired concomitant esotropia” has increased in clinical outpatient clinics. Things are seen as two horizontally separated (called “diplopia” in medical terms), which can be eliminated by closing either eye, and it is very uncomfortable to see both eyes at the same time; patients who wear glasses for myopia, the double vision is more obvious when wearing glasses. Wear glasses to see better; diplopia will worsen after fatigue, and may improve after rest.
Once the above symptoms appear, be highly vigilant. The biggest impact on life is the risk of travel, including walking, cycling, driving, etc., causing great trouble to the patient’s life. But this disease is often overlooked, and some doctors may diagnose eye fatigue, dry eye, refractive error, etc., while ignoring the misalignment of the eye (strabismus). The examination of eye position requires strict training for accurate diagnosis, so clinical diplopia has always been a difficult problem for ophthalmologists. Therefore, with these symptoms, it is necessary to go to a professional counterpart hospital for targeted examination and treatment, so as not to take a wrong road.
The treatment methods of this disease include conservative treatment and surgical treatment. Conservative treatment is mainly to wear a prism. A triangular prism is a special lens with different thicknesses on both sides. What the patient sees through the glasses wearing this lens can be automatically combined into one to eliminate symptoms. The disadvantage is that the effect of looking forward is good, but the effect of side vision is worse; in addition, the diplopia will be more obvious when the glasses are taken off than when the glasses are not worn, because the glasses are in a relaxed state, and they will not have the original vision after taking off the glasses. Ability, ghosting will appear more obvious. Therefore, conservative treatment is not curative. Surgical treatment can eradicate diplopia, but usually requires strabismus to reach a certain degree, generally above 15 prism degrees as the standard, and surgery can be temporarily ignored if it is less than 15 prism degrees. In addition, after the onset of the disease, it is generally observed for six months before surgery is considered, and the postoperative effect is more stable at this time.
Here, I recommend some practical home eye care methods to everyone. First, control the time of viewing electronic products. Each viewing of electronic products lasts no more than 20-30 minutes. You can give yourself some “reward and punishment” measures, and supervise each other with your family members. After completing the set tasks, you can enjoy the right to look at your mobile phone. In short, one-time viewing of electronic products should not be too long. Second, in the case of staying at home, go to the balcony to look into the distance, and look into the distance for more than 1 minute, which can effectively relax the ciliary muscle and relieve fatigue. It is the most convenient eye care method. Third, you can do some physical exercises that require eye tracking, such as badminton, table tennis, tennis, and relax your eyes while strengthening your body. Fourth, maintain a good sitting posture, keep the distance between the eyes and the target, do not lie down and watch, and the distance between the eyes and the target is the same, which is not only good for the eyes, but also good for the spine.
In summary, good eye habits can be achieved with scientific methodology, which is of great benefit to each of us. If the above-mentioned “ghosting” symptoms occur unfortunately, you should pay enough attention to it and seek medical treatment in a professional ophthalmological institution in time.
Zhu Wenqing (Ophthalmology Attending Physician, Eye and ENT Hospital, Fudan University)