Hyperopia

Hyperopia (hypermetropia) or farsightedness in children

In case of hypermetropia in children the eye-ball becomes shorter than average, therefore optical focus will be shifted behind retina after it is refracted. The fundus then perceives indistinct and blurry image. Practically all newborn babies have child hypermetropia of about 3 D. As time goes by the child grows, eye-ball becomes bigger and optical focus shifts to retina, relieving hypermetr`opia.

In 85% of cases of children's hyperopia we manage to get rid of the glasses.

Diagnostics of hypermetropia

Hypermetropia in children is always a congenital disease. If a child is diagnosed with hypermetropia in the age of 3 or 4 it means that the earlier conducted examinations were not correct or even not done.

We developed a standard for diagnostics of hypermetropia that lets us define the mechanism of its development in a child, define possible complications and come up with the program for the effective treatment.

• optical coherence tomography (OCT);
• visually evoked potentials (VEP);
• ultrasound A-scanning;
• examination with Goldman lens;
• computer assisted perimetry;
• electroencephalography;
• consultation by the Head of Yasny Vzor pediatric eye clinics Igor Erikovich Aznauryan, MD, Member of the Academy of Medical and Technical Sciences of the Russian Federation, and by the other leading specialists of our clinics.

Myths and facts about hypermetropia

Glasses are forever

In many cases of hypermetropia in children we manage to prevent the constant use of glasses by our patients. In some cases patients still need glasses for close vision correction. At high-grade hypermetropia after the amblyopia is corrected we can recommend eximer laser correction which allows full independence on glasses for adolescents.

Laser-vision glasses

There are many types of the so called polydiafragmal glasses with many holes that are sold openly. Their suppliers promise rapid recovery from any eye disease. But, for example, in case of myopia the dotted glasses only create better vision conditions whereby they just increase the depth of optical focus. The same effect occurs when you partly close your eyes. In case of hypermetropia laser-vision glasses can also increase quality of vision, but this is only a seemingly betterment that is not evidenced by any scientific research. This means that this kind of glasses doesn’t have any therapeutic effect. Although such glasses won’t do any harm, the patients only waste their time that could be spent on real and effective therapy.

Blueberry pills

As a rule all prescribed “blueberry pills” are merely dietary supplements consisting of multivitamin sets. Still it must be set straight that contrary to the real medical multivitamins dietary supplements are not allowed for the clinical use by the Russian medical and pharmaceutical committee and only obtain the license from the Ministry of healthcare. This means that there were no full-scale clinical tests made for these supplements, especially on how they affect children. Therefore we don’t use dietary supplements in pediatric ophthalmology. We prescribe multivitamins for our patients, such as Complivit, Undevit, Revit etc. These brands are approved by the pediatric community and show good results. In case of hypermetropia vitamins don’t play the decisive role in pediatric treatment because there are no organic changes in the fundus.

There are great reasons to start the treatment of hypermetropia now!

• Hypermetropia in children may often lead to amblyopia and strabismus which seriously affect shaping of the whole vision system. This is why the treatment should be started as soon as possible to prevent complications and accelerate functional rehabilitation of the child.
• If a child with hypermetropia has concomitant strabismus, one needs to maximally rehabilitate the child before school. Treatment courses are conducted several times a year depending on the child’s clinical state. Between the courses the child receives recommendations for homework and, if necessary, gadgets and computer programs for treatment at home. If the treatment is started early we can manage to regulate the growth of the eye-ball which leads to decrease of the grade of hypermetropia.
• In some cases, due to various reasons, children’s hypermetropia can be more than 3 D. In order to clearly see objects children have to strain their eye muscles. Young organism can’t compensate child’s hypermetropia in every case. It often leads to decrease of the functions of visual cortex cells of the brain because they fail to receive sharp image and, correspondently, there is no stimulation for correct development of the neurons. This results in decrease of visual acuity and development of amblyopia. Amblyopia is a vision impairment combined with changes in cerebral cortex that leads to the decrease of visual acuity even when wearing glasses. Amblyopia develops only in children because visual system is very flexible in childhood and every negative factor can possibly lead to deviations in its development.
• Concomitant strabismus develops in 40% of cases with hyperometria in children.

Treatment methods for hypermetropia

• Treatment of hypermetropia in children and associated amblyopia is made along with correction with glasses. Hypermetropia and amblyopia glasses are prescribed for constant use. As a rule the glasses are selected to be lower than the grade of hypermetropia.

  This technology is appropriate for children because it stimulates growth of the eye-ball and provides for decrease of hypermetropia. Hardware associated treatment of children’s hypermetropia is also a part of the therapy including various methods of vision stimulation. Treatment course for hypermetropia in children includes five to six different methods.

  All methods of treatment on children’s hypermetropia are painless. They are well adopted by the patients and include entertaining moments. The treatment courses have to be conducted 4-5 times a year. Final quantity of courses and set of treatment methods will be defined by the ophthalmologist handling the child.

  Modern technologies used for hardware associated conservative treatment of children’s hypermetropia allow full treatment of amblyopia in the majority of cases. Additionally in many cases of hypermetropia with amblyopia we manage to free the child from constant wearing of glasses.

Prevention of hypermetropia