Eyes are vital organs that plays an important role in our health. Routine eye examination is important for children to ensure they are free from vision problems and is having proper visual acuity. Now a days 5 to 10 percent of preschoolers and 25 percent of school age children are facing vision problems. Early detection and treatment will help to secure your child’s future.
Pediatric ophthalmology is a branch of ophthalmology dealing with eye diseases and vision care in children. Pediatric eye diseases are common in children.
Common pediatric eye diseases
- Pediatric strabismus or squint: It is the misalignment of eyes, where retinal image is not in corresponding areas of both eyes. Here one eye focus on a particular object, while the other eye turns inwards, outwards or downwards.
- Amblyopia or lazy eye: It is a vision development disorder, where visual acuity (sharpness of vision) cannot be achieved even after using eyeglasses or contact lenses. Only a single eye is usually affected by lazy eye. If it is left untreated, it can lead to serious visual disability.
- Congenital Cataract: Here clouding of lens occurs by birth. It is a rare eye disease where grey or white clouding is appeared on the pupil.
- Congenital Glaucoma: Childhood glaucoma is a birth defect that is caused by incorrect development of eye drainage system. Sensitivity to light, enlarged eyes, cloudiness are the common symptoms of childhood glaucoma.
- Congenital Lacrimal Drainage Block: Duct obstruction occurs in nearly 5% of the newborn babies. Here the lacrimal drainage system gets blocked. The main symptom of lacrimal block is increased tear lake or mucous discharge.
- Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP): It is an eye disease that is commonly seen in premature babies. Here abnormal blood vessels are grown in retina, that lead to the detachment of retina from back of eye. This causes blindness among children.
Most of the eye diseases of children can be managed by using eyeglasses or medications. If it does not show any results, then surgery is preferred. Lasik surgery, cataract eye surgery, Bladeless Lasik Surgery etc. are commonly used to treat cataract, glaucoma, lazy eye.
Amrit hospital is one of the best eye hospital in Chennai, providing advanced treatments in pediatric ophthalmology at an affordable cost.
