Specialties
Paediatric Ophthalmology
In May 2009, according to the World Health Organization , more than 314 million people worldwide were visually impaired out of this 45 million were blind and 85% people had low vision & avoidable blindness, childhood blindness remains a significant problem, with an estimated 12 million blind children below age 15. Children suffer from a wide range of problems such as uncorrected refractive error (that is easily corrected with glasses), congenital or developmental cataracts, squint, childhood glaucoma, tumours of the eye etc. most of these are treatable if seen early. Here at Sankara we have trained paediatric ophthalmologists who can help these children.
Sankara Eye Hospital strives to eliminate avoidable blindness and restore sight in the poor needy people.
Refractive Errors
Refractive error, when left uncorrected is the most common cause of visual impairment. It is caused due to abnormal size and curvature of the eyeball.
Types of refractive errors
(1) Myopia or near sightedness
persons with myopia have blurred distant vision. Children with myopia arenot able to perceive their problem. It increases until the age of 20 or so. The condition can be corrected by concave / minus spectacles.
(2) Hyper metropia ( far sightedness)
persons with hyper metropia have difficulty in seeing both distant & near objects. The condition can be corrected by using convex / plus spectacles. When left uncorrected, such persons feel eyestrain and headache while doing close work.
(3) Astigmatism
In this condition, a blurred distorted image falls on the retina. It causes strain. This astigmatism condition is treated by wearing cylindrical glasses
(4) Presbyopia
After the age of 40, a person may find difficulty to see near objects clearly. This is because the plasticity of the lens decreases. The defect can be corrected easily by wearing spectacles.
Prevention
Parents / teachers can identify the refractive errors in children by observing
- Hazy vision
- Complaints of headache while doing near work
- Complaints of headache while doing near work
- The child not taking interest in studies. It may be a sign of Refractive errors.
- Copying from other children’s books instead of blackboard