About one in six children suffers from eye disease caused by their fatigue. Insufficient lighting during reading, computer games, an incorrectly drawn daily routine - all this gradually leads to blurred vision, and more precisely, to eye spasms.
What it is
Doctors call this pathology a spasm of accommodation. What is it? Accommodation is the ability of the eyes to adapt under normal conditions to changes in the refractive capabilities of the lens and to equally well capture objects that are far and close. And with eye spasm, an abnormal contraction of the muscle occurs, which occurs when the pupils focus on some objects for a long time.
In adults and children, the spasm of accommodation often leads to the fact that the image of distant objects becomes blurry. That is why this pathology is often called false myopia.
Development mechanism
The fault of this condition is the tension of the ciliary muscle, which simply loses the ability to change the curvature of the lens. As a result, after natural refraction in the optical sphere, the beam focuses not on the retina, as expected, but in the plane located in front of it.
Gradually, the lens becomes convex. It changes its shape, depending on the relaxation or tension of the ciliary muscle. When looking into the distance, its fibers become relaxed, and the lens becomes almost flat. If the object is close, the muscle, on the contrary, contracts, and the lens becomes convex.
If you work too long with a closely located object, muscle tension is fixed, a spasm occurs, and the lens no longer changes its shape. Of course, the clarity of a picture with deleted objects is significantly reduced.
According to statistics, this pathology is much more common in children of preschool and school age, but in adults it is extremely rarely diagnosed. False myopia got its name due to the fact that such a visual defect is reversible and usually easily treatable. But if you do not do therapy on time, the blood flow will be disrupted in the fibers of the ciliary muscle, the ligaments that support the lens will become weaker, and it will stop changing its shape. As a result, constant myopia may appear, and vision will lose its sharpness. So it’s certainly not worth delaying treatment.
The ICD-10 accommodation spasm code is H52.5.
Causes of pathology
In fact, there are a lot of conditions provoking the development of false myopia, all of them are mainly associated with too high visual stress. Although the reason may well lie in the diseases of internal organs. Doctors identify several of the most common causes of pathology:
- excessive eye strain, for example, while working at a computer or when watching TV for a long time;
- disturbances in the daily regimen - lack of sleep, lack of useful gymnastics for tired eyes, too rare walks on the street;
- lack of natural or artificial lighting while reading or writing;
- vitamin deficiencies, lack of vitamins and minerals in consumed foods;
- impaired blood flow in the cervical region;
- muscle weakness in the neck and back;
- reading lying on its side;
- too close a distance when reading literature and writing abstracts;
- incorrect ratio of chair and table to the growth of the child.
In adults, false myopia can be caused by neurological stress, frequent stress, closed craniocerebral trauma, impaired metabolism, and a woman’s menopause. But still it is visual fatigue that is the most common cause of spasm. But be that as it may, before proceeding with treatment, you should undergo a full examination.
Symptoms of Eye Spasm
Treatment of a pathology should be started immediately after the identification of its signs. Fortunately, it is not so difficult to recognize the disease. After all, the signs of false myopia are so clearly manifested that they cannot be overlooked:
- systematic headaches covering the frontal region and region of the temples;
- frequent bifurcation of objects in front of the eyes;
- when looking into the distance, the picture becomes blurry;
- visual fatigue occurs with minimal eye strain;
- irritability and nervousness;
- redness of the cornea;
- blunt pain syndrome, tearing is not excluded.
Symptoms of pathology do not pass unnoticed by a person - they bring tangible discomfort to his life. Often, children who are faced with this problem, stop doing in school. And in adults, performance deteriorates.
In addition to all the symptoms described, eye spasm of the muscles negatively affects the whole body. For example, with this pathology, the mood often spoils, twitching of the hands and vegetovascular dystonia occur. In some cases, patients with this diagnosis have a fainting condition.
The condition of accommodation spasm in the absence of therapy can occur for several months or a maximum of two years, then stable myopia begins to develop, which turns out to be irreversible.
Varieties of pathology
Depending on the initial reasons, doctors divide eye spasm into several types.
- Physiological type. It manifests itself with prolonged eye strain, as well as in people suffering from astigmatism and farsightedness, during visual work near. In this case, special glasses for correction and physiotherapeutic procedures aimed at strengthening the ciliary muscles are used to treat eye spasm.
- Artificial look. This type of false myopia appears due to the use of ophthalmic miotic preparations, for example, “Ezerin” or “Pilocarpine”. Artificial eye spasm disappears after refusing medications provoking pathology and does not need additional treatment.
- Pathological variety. With such a disease, a decrease in visual acuity is observed, pathological processes in refraction develop.
Most often, the spasm of accommodation is mixed, combining the symptoms of a pathological and physiological form.
Diagnostics
An eye spasm can be detected by an ophthalmologist during a routine examination or based on complaints from a person who is experiencing visual impairment. Diagnosis begins with the collection of the necessary medical history and a thorough examination of the eyeball. In this case, a table of visual acuity is always used, which helps the doctor determine the level of deviation. Then the patient is assigned a comprehensive examination, involving a series of procedures.
- Ophthalmoscopy It implies a careful study of the state of the retina, fundus, and optic nerve using a special device - an ophthalmoscope. In this case, the ophthalmologist can also detect lens diseases.
- Biomicroscopy This is called non-contact eye examination using a slit lamp. Special equipment makes it possible to examine in detail the anterior chamber of the eye and determine the exact diagnosis.
- Visometry This technique involves the use of a table of visual acuity, which shows signs, figures and letters of different sizes. This technique allows you to determine the quality of vision.
- Study of accommodation. By focusing light rays on the retina, one can examine the organ’s ability to concentrate on a specific subject at different distances.
- Refractometry During the examination, corneal refraction is determined to detect hyperopia and myopia.
- Skioscopy. The study is to identify the functionality of the lens and cornea. The technique makes it possible to determine the presence of a defect in a child or a mentally unhealthy person. It is usually used in cases where other diagnostic methods are not possible.
- Tonometry. The procedure consists in measuring intraocular pressure and assessing the level of deformation of the eyeball.
When examining the eyes of children, ophthalmologists often refer them to other specialists, for example, a pediatrician and a pediatric neurologist, to confirm the alleged diagnosis.
Treatment features
After the diagnosis, the ophthalmologist will prescribe you a complex therapy of false myopia, which will include:
- drug treatment with drops that dilate the pupil and relax the fibers of the ciliary muscle;
- physiotherapeutic procedures;
- hardware treatment;
- special therapeutic exercises for the eyes.
Hardware treatment involves the use of different techniques. Your doctor may recommend you:
- electrical stimulation of the eyes using current pulses;
- elimination of spasm with the use of Sidorenko glasses - they do electrovacuum massage and improve blood flow in the eyes;
- acupuncture can increase visual acuity and stop the development of the pathological process;
- magnetotherapy involves stimulation of the ciliary muscles with a special electromagnet with alternating current;
- specially designed computer programs help train the ciliary muscle;
- electrophoresis makes it possible to quickly deliver medicines to the optical sphere of the eyes.
In clinics of eye diseases, laser therapy is deservedly considered the most effective way to treat false myopia. It helps stimulate the ciliary muscle and accelerates metabolic processes. Laser therapy pretty quickly and effectively eliminates the spasm of accommodation. In addition, this procedure is considered absolutely safe, since a special neon laser is used in the process.
If during the examination in a child or an adult the relationship of accommodation spasm with spinal pathologies was revealed, massage sessions of the collar region and back, as well as therapeutic gymnastics, will be prescribed.
Home Therapy
In addition to the basic methods of treating false myopia, additional therapy can be carried out at home.
- Physical Education. Particularly effective in this diagnosis are cycling and swimming.
- Alternation of ordinary gymnastics with visual loads.
- Massage of the neck, head, spine and collar zone. Such sessions help improve blood flow, relieve fatigue, improve eyesight. Gentle eye massage is no less useful.
- Organization of water regime, balanced nutrition. In this case, the menu must include products containing vitamins E, A, C and luteins. In the diet should be a large number of fresh vegetables, fruits and fish.
- To complete homework, the child should choose a table and chair that will correspond to his height. Equally important to equip quality lighting. The light should come to the left of the table and be scattered. Although it is much better to place the table as close to the window as possible.
Compliance with these simple rules can significantly improve the patient’s vision and well-being, as well as prevent the development of pathology in the future.
Drug therapy
You can eliminate the spasm of accommodation with the help of special drugs. Only they should be prescribed exclusively by an ophthalmologist, who will take into account the characteristics of the disease and the presence of the patient's contraindications for the use of certain drugs. Eye drops effectively relax the ciliary muscles, due to which vision can completely normalize. Drug therapy can last from two weeks to a month.
- "Atropine". Instructions for the use of eye drops states: the drug can be used 3-4 times during the day. The tool is highly effective - the spasm disappears in just a couple of minutes after instillation. The effect of the drug can last 2 weeks. But according to the instructions for use, Atropine eye drops, when used too often, lead to the development of side effects: redness and dryness of the cornea, fog in front of the eyes, narrowing of the pupils.
- Irifrin. Gently acts on the ciliary muscle. A drug with a low concentration of the active substance can be used to treat children from birth. "Irifrin" helps to dilate the pupil and the formation of intraocular fluid.
- Midriacil. Quite an effective drug that brings effect in just 5-10 minutes after instillation. The action of the drops lasts for 6-7 hours. True, the cost of the drug reaches 350 rubles, while its analogues are many times cheaper. For example, the price of Tropicamide eye drops is only 120 rubles, and Midrum is about 160 rubles. Both drugs are analogues of Midriacil. All the described means effectively eliminate the spasm of accommodation and inflammation in adults and children.
- Cyclomed. It has a delicate, but rather effective effect. The effect is felt approximately 15-20 minutes after instillation. In case of accommodation spasm, it is recommended to use it three times a day. The drug is valid for 8-12 hours.
In addition to eye drops, mineral-vitamin complexes and medicines containing lutein are prescribed for patients with false myopia.
This is the standard treatment regimen used in most modern eye disease clinics.
Useful gymnastics
The health-improving complex of exercises allows you to relieve tension from the eyes and speed up the healing process.
- Stick a small red or black circle with a diameter of up to 2 cm on the window. Move 30-40 cm away from the opening and begin the exercise. Alternately, look from the circle to the landscape outside the window, located no closer than 5 meters.
- Alternately, press with your fingers on the upper eyelid of each eye, holding for a few seconds.
- Open and close your eyes every 5-7 seconds.
- Visually draw with your eyes the various patterns, numbers and letters.
- Look at the tip of your index finger with your hand outstretched. Then slowly begin to bring it closer until it begins to double in the eyes.
- Blink quickly for two minutes.