Patient Care

What are the common Paediatric Eye Diseases?

Refractory error, Amblyopia, Squint, Congenital Cataract and Retinopathy of Prematurity are the common Paediatric Eye Diseases.

Amblyopia is an eye problem whereby a child has blurry vision, usually in one eye. If not treated, this can lead to blindness. This problem requires treatment that combines of eyeglasses, patch therapy and occasional application of medicated eye drops (atropine or homatropine). Patching or eye drops are used to stimulate the brain to pay attention and use the eye, while the glasses make the images that the eye sees as clear as possible.

Till what age Amblyopia can be successfully treated?

Amblyopia should be treated by the age of nine years in order to be the most effective. After the age of nine, treatment can still produce improvement in vision, but they are much more limited.

What is a squint?

Any misalignment of the eyes is called a squint or strabismus.

When should a child with strabismus be examined?

As squint in children is not just a cosmetic problem, it should be treated as soon as it is noticed by the parents. It can lead to loss of vision and stereoscopic vision. The loss could be permanent if the child is not treated in time.

How is a squint corrected?

Some of them can be corrected with glasses, but most of them may require surgery of the muscles of the eyeball. Sometimes more than one surgery may be required for proper alignment of the eyes. Squint surgery does not adversely affect the vision of the eyes.