If one eye sees worse. One or both eyes have become worse to see - causes and treatment

In modern people, especially office workers, the eyes are probably the most actively working organ. What to do if you began to see worse?

Texts of business papers, a computer monitor, and in the evening a television screen - with such a load, vision really deteriorates rapidly. Why did the eyes become worse to see and is it possible to stop this process? Experts say that all to a large extent depends on our desire.

Reason 1

Eye muscles don't work. The image of the objects we see depends on the eye - its light-sensitive shell, as well as on changes in curvature - natural eye lens, which certain muscles cause to become either flatter or more convex, depending on the distance to the object in question. If the object is constantly at the same distance (the text of a book or a computer screen), then the muscles that control the lens weaken. Like any muscle that doesn't work, it loses its shape.

Conclusion. For good vision far and near, it is necessary to constantly train the muscles of the eyes, regularly performing the following exercise: to concentrate your gaze alternately on distant and near objects.

Reason 2

Age-related changes in the retina. The cells of the retina of the eye contain a light-sensitive pigment that gives us the ability to see. With age, this pigment is destroyed and visual acuity, respectively, falls.

Conclusion. By slowing down the aging process of the body, it is possible to slow down the aging of the retina. And for this you need to regularly eat foods with vitamin A - carrots, meat, milk, fish, eggs. True, vitamin A dissolves and works only in fat, in this regard carrot salad it is better to season with sour cream or sunflower oil. It is necessary from time to time to allow yourself fatty meat and fish. It is better to drink milk of medium fat content. Special substances that restore visual pigment are found in fresh blueberries. Therefore, in the summer it is worth pampering yourself with it and stocking up on berries for the whole winter.

Reason 3

Deterioration of blood flow. Nutrition and respiration of body cells is carried out by supplying blood to them. The retina of the eye is a delicate organ that suffers from the slightest violation of blood circulation. Actually, circulatory disorders are what ophthalmologists are trying to see by examining.

Conclusion. Going to the ophthalmologist is best done on a regular basis. After all, circulatory disorders of the retina entail serious illnesses. With an existing predisposition to them, the doctor will prescribe drugs to improve the condition of the vessels. There are also certain diets, following which, you can normalize blood circulation and maintain blood vessels in good condition. It would be useful to take care of your blood vessels: going to the steam room or sauna, procedures in the pressure chamber, and other pressure drops are best excluded.

Reason 4

Eye strain. The retina of the eye suffers, and when it gets too bright light, and when working in low light conditions.

Conclusion. Protecting the light-sensitive cells of the retina, one must not only use Sunglasses but do not strain your eyes when insufficient lighting. Reading in transport is also very harmful, here, in addition to uneven light, swaying is also added, which makes the visual process very difficult.

Reason 5

Dry eye. Clear vision is impossible without the purity of transparent shells that transmit light rays reflected from objects. Mucous eyes are washed with tear fluid, so when the eyes are dry, a person sees worse.

Conclusion. For better visual acuity, it is useful to cry at times. And when you don’t feel like crying, you can use special eye drops that are close in composition to a natural tear.

The main enemy is the screen

Working with a computer makes our eyes especially tense. And it's not just about the text. The human eye is similar to a camera in many ways. And in order to get a clear "snapshot" of the screen image, consisting of flickering dots, it must constantly change. Such a setting requires a huge expenditure of energy and causes an overexpenditure of the visual pigment rhodopsin. At the same time, myopic people spend significantly more of this pigment than people with normal vision. Undoubtedly, similar situation, extremely unfavorable for the eyes. It is not surprising that in this case its degree may develop or increase.

It is especially dangerous that the computer monitor creates a sense of depth in the image. Why do artists almost never have myopia? Because their eyes are constantly training, because they have to look from a sheet or canvas to a distant object. For this reason, when working on a computer, do not forget about the rules for working with text.

Specialists of the Research Institute of Eye Diseases. Helmholtz in Moscow recommend "computer glasses", which are equipped with special filters that bring the color characteristics of computer screens closer to the spectral sensitivity of the human eye. Such glasses can be, and with diopters, and without. Eyes in such glasses get tired much less.

Very useful for eye training next move. Taking a sheet with printed text, you need to slowly bring it closer to your eyes until the letter outlines lose their clarity. This causes tension in the internal muscles of the eyes. And when the text is slowly moved away without ceasing to look at it, they relax. Repeating this exercise for 2-3 minutes will give the eyes the necessary training and tension will be released.

It is necessary to pay special attention to the eyes when the long winter weeks of "light starvation" have depleted the reserves of visual strength, and due to spring beriberi, new forces have not yet been developed. At this time, the retina especially needs extra food, because she has to spend significantly more visual pigment. In this case, blueberry preparations will come to the rescue, which, in the form of jam, was given to pilots of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain during World War II to improve vision for night flights.

Eye exercises

1. Close your eyes tightly, and then open your eyes wide. Do 5-6 sets of exercises with a half-minute interval.

2. Without turning your head, look up, down and to the sides. Do 3 sets with an interval of 2 minutes. Complicate the exercises by doing the same with your eyes closed.

3. Rotate your eyes in a circle: up, left, down, right and in the opposite direction. Do 3 sets with an interval of 2 minutes. Close your eyes and repeat the exercise again.

4. Close your eyes tightly for 5 seconds, then open your eyes for 5 seconds. Do at least 6 approaches.

5. Blink quickly for at least a minute.

6. At a distance of a meter or two from the desktop, it is useful to hang a bright calendar or other bright picture in a well-lit place so that you can look at it from time to time while working.

7. Stretch your hand forward and focus on your fingertips, look at them for at least 3-5 seconds. Run 10-12 approaches.

8. Approaching the window, you need to look at a point or scratch on the glass (it’s easier to stick a piece of plaster or electrical tape), then from this mark look into the distance, for example, to a television antenna at home opposite or a branch of a tree growing far away. Perform the exercise for at least 7 minutes.

By the way

The eyes of each person are not the same and not symmetrical - this is a proven fact. But it is one thing when the organs of vision simply differ in size, shape, color, these differences are insignificant and are cosmetic defect rather than a symptom of pathology. And another thing is when one eye sees worse than the other, especially if such a problem arose unexpectedly. sudden blindness in one eye is a sign serious violations in the body, sometimes not directly related to the organs of vision, but affecting the cardiovascular and nervous system. Even a temporary loss of vision in the right or left eye is the basis for a full examination by an ophthalmologist. Only a specialist will be able to find out why one eye sees worse than the other and what needs to be done about it in order to correct the defect and prevent complications.

Often, visual impairment in one eye is a symptom of congenital pathology or abnormal development of eye structures. For a long time the patient himself may not notice the difference. Usually it is detected in a child already in school age at scheduled inspection at a pediatric ophthalmologist.

For information: a full-fledged perception of the surrounding world and the formation of a holistic visual picture is possible only if both eyes function normally, perceive visual impulses and transmit them through the optic nerves to the corresponding centers of the brain. There, two pictures are formed into a single one, as a result, a person receives a bright, clear and three-dimensional image. The ability of both eyes to clearly perceive objects and objects and interpret them correctly is called binocular vision. If it is lost, and vision in one of the eyes begins to deteriorate, amblyopia is diagnosed.

A condition in which the visual acuity of one eye is less than the other is called amblyopia and is predominantly congenital pathology– as a rule, primary amblyopia is diagnosed in children

What it is

Amblyopia is a fairly common congenital or acquired ophthalmic pathology in which one of the eyes is partially or completely excluded from the visual process. Persistent loss of vision in one eye is a sign of amblyopia, commonly known as lazy eye syndrome. In this case, the loss of vision is due in most cases not to damage or morphological changes in the eye structures. One eye does not see or sees poorly for other reasons, which are formed, as a rule, even in childhood. The defect can be corrected, but with the help of glasses or contact lenses it won't work.

With amblyopia in a patient, one eye sees well and clearly, the other is blurry, cloudy, without contrast and color. A person with such a pathology is not able to focus his eyes on an object, the image begins to double. To get rid of double vision, the body turns on a compensation mechanism: the eye, which has become worse to see, is excluded from the visual process, and the brain perceives only the picture that it transmits. healthy organ vision.

This leads to further visual impairment. healthy eye and eventually it becomes completely non-functional. Such violations are most often reversible and correctable. But it is necessary to be examined as early as possible by a good ophthalmologist, to identify the reasons why one eye sees better than the other, and immediately begin treatment.

Causes and types of amblyopia

By its nature, amblyopia can be congenital (primary) or acquired (secondary). One of the main causes of the congenital form of pathology is burdened heredity. genetic predisposition to visual impairment in one eye has long been proven: if a similar phenomenon was observed in one of the parents or close blood relatives, then the children automatically fall into the group high risk development of the same pathology.

Strabismus in a child caused by abnormal pregnancy or difficult childbirth - one of the more common causes amblyopia in childhood

There are also such forms of amblyopia, depending on the nature of its origin and provoking factors:

Dysbinocular or strabismatic. Strabismus - medical term used in ophthalmology to determine strabismus in children and adults. Therefore, already from the name it can be understood that amblyopia in this case is a sign and the consequences of strabismus, in which there was a prolonged suppression of the functions of one eye. You can correct strobism both with the help of special optical devices and exercises, and surgically. Only after that proceed to the elimination of amblyopia.
Deprivation or obscuration. With this form of pathology, one eye begins to see blurry and fuzzy due to clouding of those elements of the eye structures that are responsible for the refraction of light rays. Such a symptom, in turn, can be triggered by damage to the cornea, prolapse upper eyelid eyes, also the deprecation form of amblyopia is a sign of lesions of the lens. AT pathological process usually both eyes are involved.
Refractive. One of the most common forms of amblyopia, the causes are astigmatism or farsightedness in advanced stages. Refraction (the degree of refraction of a beam of light) in the right and left eyes is different. Therefore, one eye sees brighter and sharper than the other.
Anisometropic. In fact, this is one of the subspecies of refractive amblyopia described above. it congenital anomaly, characterized by a difference in refraction of the right and left eyes of at least two diopters.
hysterical or psychogenic. In this case, vision in one eye drops sharply under the influence of severe stress, fright, psychological trauma(often in younger children and adolescence). After an emotional shake-up, a person suddenly notices that one eye began to see darker and more cloudy than the other. To eliminate such a defect, it is usually required to connect a therapist, sedative drugs are used.

Often there is a combined form of amblyopia, that is, caused by two or three factors at once. As a rule, the dysbinocular form is combined with some other form. Treatment with such a diagnosis will require a long and versatile.

A sharp decrease in vision in an adult in one eye is usually caused by trauma or nervous stress.

Also, amblyopia is classified according to the degree of severity, a person sees with one eye closer, or at a distance, clearly or vaguely, in a different color or without it at all. In complex forms of the disease, a blinded eye does not determine the shape, shape, color, distance and volume of the object in question. In the most severe cases total blindness is diagnosed.

Factors and risk groups

AT medical practice The most common cause of congenital amblyopia is pathological course pregnancy, premature birth or birth trauma. Predisposing factors for such visual impairment are:

prematurity of the fetus;
body weight at birth below 2500 g;
retinopathy of premature newborns;
congenital forms of cataract and anisometropia;
cerebral palsy;
bad heredity.

A congenital decrease in vision in one of the eyes of a child is also a sign of mental underdevelopment.

In premature babies with birth defects in development, amblyopia is diagnosed several times more often than in babies born on time

If we talk about the factors that provoke the development of secondary amblyopia in adolescents and adults, then these include:

Living, studying or working in adverse conditions environment. This includes rooms with smoky, chemically polluted air, work on outdoors in too dry, humid climates, at high or low temperatures, in the wind, etc.
Hypertension of any degree and form.
Strabismus untreated in childhood or developed after trauma, surgical intervention on the organs of vision.
Inflammation affecting the temporal artery.
Wrong selection or misuse various optical devices for vision correction.

Note: if you look at the statistics of ophthalmic pathologies in adults, then amblyopia is occupational disease welders. In this case, secondary amblyopia develops as a consequence of electrophthalmia, a condition that occurs with prolonged and regular exposure of the eyes to ultraviolet radiation.

In adults, visual impairment in one eye often occurs in connection with professional activities.

How to recognize pathology

Detect amblyopia small child on the early stages it is almost impossible, since the baby himself is not yet able to complain, and it is not yet advisable to carry out diagnostic measures. But if the parents are aware of the predisposition of the baby to similar pathology, they must carefully observe it from an infant's point of view. The following symptoms and phenomena may indicate the development of amblyopia:

overhanging of the upper eyelid;
strabismus - can be barely noticeable, occur only periodically when the child is tired, nervous or crying;
the habit of moving objects to one eye, leaning towards an object or turning to it with one side, if detailed examination is required;
complaints about fatigue eyes when reading and writing in older children;
poor orientation in space - on the street and in unfamiliar places, a child can stumble upon pieces of furniture, not get into doorways, collide with passers-by;
nystagmus is a syndrome in which uncontrolled rhythmic contractions occur eyeball.

A cause for concern in adults and adolescents will be such atypical symptoms and phenomena:

blurring of objects, distortion of their outlines;
double vision;
difficulties in determining the distance to the object and its volume;
decreased visual acuity in the morning;
the inability to consider and identify objects located far away.

It can be quite difficult to detect amblyopia on your own, if it does not progress, is not accompanied by other visual impairments, since the defect is compensated by a healthy eye and vision, in principle, remains quite clear.

Decreased visual acuity, especially when viewing distant objects, is one of the main manifestations of amblyopia.

Diagnostic methods

To accurately diagnose amblyopia, determine its type and degree, you will need to conduct a series of diagnostic measures. Comprehensive diagnostics amblyopia includes the following steps:

Initial examination and questioning of the patient or persons accompanying him. The doctor will assess the condition of the eyelids and the eyeball, the size palpebral fissure, check the reaction of the pupils to light. When interviewing, it is important to establish how the pregnancy and childbirth proceeded, how long suspicious symptoms were noticed, whether any surgical interventions were performed on the eyes, when and how they ended, what were the results of the treatment, whether close relatives of the patient suffer from visual impairment.
Ophthalmoscopy. Not performed in newborns, older children, adolescents and adults through a series of tests and instrumental research the doctor determines visual acuity, light perception, visual fields are determined, the fundus is examined. In principle, based on the results of ophthalmoscopy, it is already possible to put provisional diagnosis and determine the form of amblyopia.
Biomicroscopy - eye structures are examined using a slit lamp.
Tonometry - the doctor determines intraocular pressure.
Ultrasound of the eye and adjacent tissues and organs to identify or detect possible comorbidities.
If strobism or severe strobism is detected, the shape and angle of strabismus are determined.
Refractometry - a doctor with the help special devices determines the power of refraction of a light beam. This procedure is carried out in order to exclude or confirm refractive amblyopia.

To accurately establish the type, shape and degree of visual impairment, a number of diagnostic measures will be required.

Remember! It is extremely important to identify amblyopia, establish the causes of its development and begin treatment as early as possible. The fact is that non-surgical treatment is effective only if the formation of eye structures has not yet been completed and the compensatory mechanism, in which the disturbed functions of one eye are replaced by the work of the other, has not yet been strengthened. If the moment is missed, then the forecasts deteriorate significantly even when using surgical methods elimination of the defect. The optimal age of the child is considered to be complex treatment amblyopia from 2 to 7 years. In adult patients, even laser correction vision does not bring the expected results, since changes in eye structures are already irreversible.

Treatment Methods

The main goal of treatment is not to restore clarity of vision with glasses or contact lenses, but to eliminate the cause of the deterioration in vision in one of the eyes. Since the causes can be very different, the treatment regimen is also selected for each case individually. The patient and his parents should immediately tune in to a long course of treatment, which cannot be interrupted and postponed - this will nullify the results achieved.

Even surgical treatment amblyopia makes sense only if the eye structures are not yet fully formed and visual habits are not fixed - that is, before the age of 7-8 years

Therapy will be carried out in different directions, depending on the severity of amblyopia, the cause that provoked it, the age of the patient, and other diseases identified during the examination. Usually a combination of the following events is made:

Elimination of ptosis (drooping of the eyelid) through blepharoplasty, if the cause of amblyopia is in this defect.
When cloudy vitreous body a vitrectomy is performed - an operation to remove it and replace it with an implant.
If amblyopia accompanies a cataract, it is also removed surgically first.
With dysbinocular amblyopia, the location of the eyeballs is corrected by surgical intervention.
Refractive and anisometropic forms of pathology can be treated conservative methods. Mostly special glasses (occluder) and devices for eye training are used.

AT recent times more often surgical operations are replaced laser therapy as more effective and less traumatic. But this method also has its contraindications and side effects, is not carried out in all ophthalmological offices and clinics, it is quite expensive, therefore it is not suitable for all patients.

The occlusion method has proven to be one of the most effective and safest in the treatment of young children.

main method conservative treatment amblyopia in children is pleoptics - the "lazy" eye is forced to "work", artificially limiting the functions of a healthy eye. It can be passive, with the use of occluders (eye patches) or active (using special preparations to impair the visual functions of a healthy eye). Electrophoresis, vibromassage, reflexology are also used. Good result give classes in a playful way at the synoptophore.

Summary: Any drastic changes visual functions, even if they were short-term and then recovered on their own, are the reason for contacting an ophthalmologist, comprehensive examination and treatment. The prognosis is more favorable the younger the patient. In children under 7 years old, it is possible to completely get rid of amblyopia in 1-2 years without consequences and complications. In adults, the treatment of amblyopia is inappropriate and ineffective.

The most active body modern man, especially office worker, is the eye. He is subjected to stress when reading texts of business papers, staying in front of a computer monitor or TV screen. Under the influence of these factors, vision deteriorates. Can this process be stopped?

Causes of deterioration in the quality of vision

Visual acuity can decrease for various reasons:

Lack of work. The image quality of objects depends on the light-sensitive part of the eye - as well as on changes in curvature. It is a special lens inside the eye, which, depending on the distance to the object under the influence ciliary muscles becomes either flatter or more convex. If a person constantly focuses on a computer screen or the text of a book, then the muscles that control the lens become weak and lethargic. From inactivity, they lose their shape. To prevent this from happening, you should constantly train the eye muscles. It is necessary to regularly concentrate your gaze either on objects located at a close distance, or on those that are located far away.
Retinal aging. The cells of the retina contain a light-sensitive pigment that provides vision. It can break down with age, leading to vision loss. In order to slow down this process, it is necessary to provide the body with vitamin A. It is found in carrots, milk, meat, fish and eggs. It should be borne in mind that vitamin A is soluble in fat, so foods that contain a lot of it should be consumed with vegetable and animal fats. You should also consume a moderate amount of fatty meat and fish. More beneficial to drink whole milk. The visual pigment is restored under the influence of a special substance contained in fresh blueberries. It is perfectly preserved when drying these berries.
Deterioration of blood circulation. In the cells of the human body nutrients and oxygen enters through the blood blood vessels. The retina of the eye is a very delicate tissue that suffers with minimal circulatory disorders. They can be seen during research. In this regard, it is necessary to regularly be examined by an ophthalmologist. This is especially true for individuals who are prone to vascular diseases. Visual impairment can be prevented by taking medications, which will be prescribed by the ophthalmologist, adhering to special diet with which you can keep it in good condition. It is necessary to avoid procedures in the pressure chamber and pressure drops. Staying in a sauna or steam room can also worsen the condition of the retina.
Eye-strain. On the retina of the eye are light-sensitive cells that suffer from a lack of illumination and exposure to bright light. In order to save them, you need to wear sunglasses. You need to work in good lighting. You should not read in transport, because with uneven light and swaying, vision deteriorates.
Dryness of the mucous membrane of the eye. To ensure the quality of vision, it is necessary that the shells through which the beam of light reflected from objects pass are clean and transparent. The conjunctiva is bathed in special moisture, so when the eyes become dry, we see worse. In order to keep the eye moist, you should blink more often and periodically instill special eye drops"Artificial tear".

The main enemy of the organ of vision is the monitor screen. When working with a computer, the eyes are especially strained, and this depends not only on the size of the text. The fact is that the human eye is in many ways similar to a camera. The image on the screen consists of many flickering dots. In order to make a clear “picture” of it, the eye needs to constantly change focus. This consumes a lot of energy and a large number of the main visual pigment called rhodopsin. In the presence of it, much more is spent than in people with normal vision. This leads to an unpleasant situation for the eyes.

Naturally, as a result increased loads myopia begins to progress. This creates a sense of depth on the computer monitor, which is extremely dangerous. Very rarely myopia is determined in artists. The fact is that they constantly train the muscles of the eye when they look from a canvas or a sheet of paper to objects located at a distance. When working with a computer, you should follow the safety rules.

Ophthalmologists believe that if you need to work with a computer for a long time, you should use "computer" glasses. They are equipped with special filters, due to which the color characteristics of monitors approach the spectral sensitivity of the human eye. They can be both without diopters and with them. If you arm yourself with such glasses, then your eyes will get tired much less.

It is useful to train the eyes. You can pick up printed text and slowly bring it closer to your eyes until the letters become fuzzy. At this time, tense internal muscles eye. Then the text should be slowly moved to arm's length, while not ceasing to look at it. This leads to relaxation eye muscles. This exercise is repeated for 2-3 minutes.

It is necessary to take special care of your eyes at a time when the reserve of visual strength has been depleted during the “light starvation”, and due to the spring beriberi, the forces have not recovered. At this time, the retina has to spend a large amount of visual pigment. She needs more nutrition. You can help the eye recover by taking medications that include blueberries. It can also be consumed in the form of jam or dried berries.

Gymnastics for the eyes

Gymnastics for the eyes will be useful:

It is necessary to alternate tightly close and open your eyes wide. This exercise should be repeated 5 or 6 times, maintaining an interval of 30 seconds.
Next, you need, without turning your head, look from top to bottom, as well as to the sides. This exercise is done three times, maintaining an interval of 1-2 minutes. Then the same must be done with closed eyes.
Then you can rotate your eyeballs in a circle: up, left, down, right and vice versa. It is useful to repeat the exercise three times with an interval of one or two minutes. The same is recommended to do this with your eyes closed.
It is necessary to close your eyes tightly for 3-5 seconds, and then open them for the same time. This exercise is repeated 6 to 8 times.
It is recommended to blink rapidly for one minute.
It is also useful to hang a bright picture, photo or calendar at a distance of 1-2 meters from the desktop in a well-lit place. During the work, it is necessary to periodically look at these objects.
You can stretch your hand in front of you and look for 3-5 minutes at the tip of your finger from a distance of 20 to 30 cm. This exercise is recommended to be repeated 10 to 12 times.
Such an exercise has an excellent effect on the organ of vision: you should stand at the window, look at some point on the glass, and then look, for example, at the top of a tree growing in the distance, or the roof of a high-rise building.

It will be comfortable for the eyes if the text with which the person works is at a distance of about 30 cm with a straight back. It is better to place a book or notebook on an inclined surface, that is, at a right angle to the eye. It is better to place the computer monitor so that you can look at it from above at an angle of 15 °.

The most well-known pathologies are myopia and hyperopia. They usually affect both eyes at once. But periodically there are cases when vision problems affect only one eye, and the second continues to function normally. In order to find out what kind of illness "terrorizes" the eyeball, it is advisable to contact an ophthalmologist. Some diseases can be recognized and even cured on their own, but most of so simply does not leave the body without professional help.

The reasons

Most hazards that affect the deterioration of vision in one eye are considered amblyopia and retinal tear or detachment. But most often the reason is not so serious.

Lead to unilateral loss of vision can:

Having an infection or foreign body― at hit in an eye of objects or microorganisms there is an itch. If you constantly scratch your eyes, then irritation of the mucous membrane may appear. Treatment in this case simple - rinse clean water and eliminate serious stress on it. The itching should be gone by the next day.
Barley - an abscess closes the pupil, because of this we get a "picture" with interference. Treatment does not take long. It consists in taking medications that a doctor must prescribe.
Inflammation of the conjunctiva - the visual functions of the eye are impaired by profuse lacrimation, swelling, or pus. You can get rid of the problem with eye drops, or folk remedy- lotions soaked in chamomile infusion.
Cervical osteochondrosis - because of it, pinching of the aorta, which provides the optic nerves with the necessary blood flow, may occur. In this case, it is useless to treat the eye; it is necessary to remove the root cause - osteochondrosis.
Vasoconstriction - to eliminate it is necessary to start taking vasodilating eye drops. Treatment should take place under the supervision of a specialist.

If one of the above factors led to a drop in vision, then you should not worry - the treatment will not take much time and effort. But if to breach visual function led to more serious phenomena - retinal rupture or amblyopia, then you can sound the alarm. The first case requires immediate surgical intervention.

With amblyopia, the situation is even more complicated. It is difficult to recognize it in the early stages, for this it is necessary full examination eyeball. When the disease progresses to a serious level, difficulties appear already with the treatment. At the most late stages the changes may be irreversible.

Amblyopia

The word came to us from Ancient Greece, and translates "lazy eye", and from the "medical" language it means a condition in which functionality one eye is disturbed due to problems in the interaction with the brain. The basis of the disease is dysfunction of the visual analyzer.

There are four varieties of this disease:

Refractive - arises on the basis of other pathologies: myopia, hypermetropia, strabismus, etc. The patient's refusal to use glasses leads to a fuzzy image on the retina, and this phenomenon is systematic.
Dysbinocular - is formed on the basis of strabismus.
Obscurative - the cause can be congenital cataract and ptosis. They block the passage of light through the retina.
Antisometropic - occurs when there is an excessive difference in visual acuity between the eyes (more than two diopters).

Amblyopia, popularly referred to simply as "lazy eye", occurs due to a discrepancy between the images read by the left and right eyes. A sick eye transmits information in an incorrect form - with a distorted volume and blurry outlines.

As a result, the brain cannot form one complete picture from a pair of conflicting sources. Diplopia (doubling of the image) occurs.

In order to adjust clarity, the brain refuses to read visual information from the diseased eye. After that, a person really begins to see a clearer and more accurate picture, but ... with only one eye.

The first signs, as a rule, begin to appear in childhood (up to seven years). But the disease can knock down an adult as well. In some cases, vision loss does not occur gradually, but instantly.

The most vulnerable to amblyopia are people who have already managed to acquire visual defects of a different nature: myopia, hyperopia, clouding of the lens, cataracts and astigmatism. There are many chances of getting amblyopia in people who have relatives with strabismus.

What to do

Ambiopia is easier to detect on initial stage. For successful treatment need

timely diagnosis. By itself, the disease will not disappear, so the sooner the patient sees a doctor, the sooner he can get rid of amblyopia.

When diagnosing, it is important to calculate the root cause of the disease. For this, a special inspection is carried out. Based on the results obtained, the doctor prescribes treatment (conservative or surgical).

The latter is prescribed if the lens cannot cope with the load. During the operation, it is replaced.

Conservative therapy includes several methods:

Occlusion - in order for the diseased eye to develop, the healthy one is closed.
Penalization - the principle is the same, but the deterioration of visibility good eye achieved not with a bandage, but with the help of special drops or lenses.
Pleooptical - treatment of amblyopia using computer programs.
Optical-physical therapy, which is carried out with the help of special equipment.

The ophthalmologist may prescribe various aids: gymnastics for the eyes, wearing corrective glasses, drawing, picking up puzzles, etc.

Among all the diseases inherent in any person, eye diseases are no less common. There is a classification eye diseases, which may have similar symptoms, therefore, require examination by a doctor.

Each disease is characterized by its inherent clinical picture and represents a particular danger to humans in the absence of adequate and competent treatment. The same can be said about eye diseases that occur in the practice of medicine no less than all others inherent in a person at any age.

Eye diseases can be pathological or infectious nature. Of course, infectious ones are considered less dangerous, since they are easily treated with timely handling to a specialist than pathological. This statement is due to the fact that a number of pathological eye diseases require surgical intervention and cannot be eliminated. medical method treatment.

Often the patient goes to the doctor with a complaint that one eye has become worse to see. There are many reasons for this, and in order to determine one of them, a deep diagnosis is needed, which consists in a thorough examination of the fundus of the eye. Very often the reason poor eyesight one of the eyes is a rupture of the retina on the periphery and its detachment. This diagnosis requires urgent surgical intervention to exclude total loss vision. Another reason lies in the narrowing of the vessels of the eye without any serious abnormalities and pathological changes. In this case, according to the doctor's prescription, vasodilating eye drops of a general effect are taken.

Often the cause of poor vision in one eye can be a disease such as cervical osteochondrosis. For many, this will seem strange, but in medical practice, such cases are frequent. The point is that due to cervical osteochondrosis there is a pinching or damage to the main aorta, which runs along the spine and supplies the brain and optic nerve with the necessary blood flow. In the event that the aorta is pinched by a shift of the vertebrae, the flow of blood to the brain and to optic nerve partially stops, which is the cause of poor vision. In this case, treatment should not be aimed at restoring vision, but at eliminating the underlying cause, that is, cervical osteochondrosis.

And finally, there is a lazy eye syndrome (amblyopia). The disease is characterized by the fact that one eye, for whatever reason, "lags behind" the other in the development of visual function. Amblyopia, as a rule, develops due to strabismus, farsightedness, astigmatism, nystagmus, cataracts, corneal clouding. The disease affects children to a greater extent, but this does not mean at all that adults can also be involved in the process. It should be borne in mind that the symptoms of the disease may be spontaneous, when the patient complains that vision has deteriorated not for a certain time, but instantly. In this case, it makes no sense to delay and hope for a miracle, since we can talk about irreversible consequences.

Therefore, it is extremely important to timely and promptly visit a doctor for a thorough examination and proper treatment. Whatever the cause of visual impairment, the doctor may require the patient to have a history of all diseases, as well as send for a complete examination to detect and identify true reason diseases. Only after a thorough examination, the doctor will be able to choose the most reliable treatment option that will help eliminate the problem. Treatment of the disease, depending on its degree and course, is complex and includes drug therapy and surgical intervention. If the doctor decides that drug therapy will not give positive results, assigned prompt elimination Problems.

It makes no sense to self-medicate or refuse surgery, because some causes of poor vision can lead to complete loss of vision. Thus, if one eye began to see worse than the other, one should not wait until the symptoms disappear on their own. On the contrary, the patient must listen to the body, to the ongoing processes and changes in order to tell the doctor (ophthalmologist) about them. This will help to correctly determine the cause and choose proper treatment. Sometimes the participation of the patient helps the doctor quickly solve the problem. Therefore, you should not delay the visit and, moreover, with the prescriptions of the doctor. This will help to avoid in the future such consequences as the development of visual impairment or its complete loss.

Such an ailment as visual impairment in one eye has various reasons and requires a mandatory and prompt referral to a specialist. This approach will help the patient avoid further consequences and preserve their vision in the future.