7-year-old boy went to hospital after playing games and crossing eyes? Be careful with this kind of behavior in children!

In an era when electronic products are becoming increasingly popular, teenagers and children are even more obsessed with electronic games, and 7-year-old Haohao is no exception. Every day after school, Haohao doesn't like to watch TV, but only likes to play games. Sometimes he even stays up at night and secretly plays games. Two months ago, Haohao's parents accidentally discovered that Haohao's eyes suddenly became cross-eyed, and Haohao himself also found that he had double vision when looking at things. What is going on?

After examination, the 7-year-old was diagnosed with acute concomitant esotropia, with his right eye strabismus at 30 degrees, which was very obvious and required timely surgical treatment. After learning that Haohao played games at close range for a long time, the doctor speculated that Haohao's concomitant esotropia might be caused by long-term use of electronic products.

How harmful is it to use your eyes at close range for a long time?

When a normal person looks far away, the ciliary muscle is in a relaxed state. At this time, the refractive power of the lens is small and the eyes are not easily fatigued. When the eyes look at close objects, the ciliary muscle is in a contracted and tense state.

Although teenagers' eyes have particularly strong adaptability and they are not easily fatigued even if they use their eyes at close range for a long time, continuous close-range use will cause them to be in a state of tension for a long time, resulting in accommodative myopia. If the tension is not eliminated in time, it may continue to develop and may develop into irreversible true myopia.

Family prevention is a key link in the prevention of myopia among children and adolescents, especially in preschool and elementary school stages, and the role of parents is crucial. For most children, the culprit of myopia is prolonged close-range eye use.

For children and adolescents in the growth and development period, once true myopia develops, along with continued growth and development and close-range eye use, the eye axis will become longer and longer, and the myopia degree will become deeper and deeper. It is likely to eventually develop into high myopia or even pathological myopia, with the risk of blindness.

Excessive use of the eyes can also cause strabismus

Acute concomitant esotropia is a special type of esotropia with an acute onset that can occur in older children and adults. It manifests as sudden onset of esotropia, accompanied by diplopia, the same angle of squinting in all directions, and no eye movement disorder. At the same time, attention should be paid to excluding brain lesions.

Image source: pexels

With the popularization of electronic products, the incidence of acute concomitant esotropia has increased year by year. Due to long-term close-range use of the eyes, excessive accommodative convergence leads to an imbalance in the convergence and separation of the eyes, and the eyes cannot relax, thus forming acute concomitant esotropia. At present, most acute concomitant esotropia is caused by this reason.

Patients with mild strabismus can wear prisms, and patients with moderate strabismus need strabismus surgery if the double vision lasts too long. Therefore, early detection and early treatment are advisable.

Ophthalmologist recommendations

Try not to let your children stay up late to play games, and do not stare at the mobile phone screen for more than 20 minutes; remember the "3 20s", that is, every 20 minutes, look 20 feet (about 6 meters) away for at least 20 seconds (if conditions permit, it is recommended to rest for 10 minutes), and relax your eyes simply and quickly; at night, the brightness of the mobile phone screen should be lowered, and the lights should not be turned off indoors. The screen brightness should be adapted to the brightness of the surrounding environment. If the eyes are dry, the symptoms can be improved by consciously blinking more, relaxing more, and applying hot compresses (steam eye masks). If the symptoms are severe, you should go to the hospital for treatment in time. Once parents find that their children have strabismus, they should make an appointment to the hospital for examination as soon as possible. The doctor should formulate a reasonable treatment plan based on the actual examination results.

Source: Chongqing Aier Children's Eye Hospital Co., Ltd.

Audit expert: He Yongchuan

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