Blindness is happening at a younger age? What can we do?

Turn off the lights to play with your phone? Play computer all night? Is this your daily eye-damaging "stupid operation"? Many young people in front of the screen may think that blinding eye diseases are far away from us, so they wantonly add burden to our eyes, do not pay attention to eye hygiene, often use eyes intensively, etc. Little do they know that blinding eye diseases have a strong ability to hide. For example, the fundus complications of pathological myopia are easy to be ignored, and in recent years, there is a trend of younger people, so we need to pay attention!

01What is pathological myopia?

People with high myopia (greater than 6D or axial length greater than 26mm) who, in addition to poor vision, also have pathological changes in the fundus are called pathological myopia.

02What are the fundus changes caused by pathological myopia?

Generally speaking, the higher the degree of myopia, the longer the eye axis. When the anteroposterior diameter of the eye axis becomes longer, the delicate tissue of the fundus will undergo changes to varying degrees, such as leopard-like fundus, macular hemorrhage, peripheral retinal degeneration, peripheral retinal holes, posterior scleral staphyloma, etc. At the same time, the risk of retinal detachment and splitting is much higher, and these complications can cause progressive damage to vision and even blindness.

03What should we do?

According to the "White Paper on Eye Health in China" released by the National Health Commission in 2020, the overall myopia rate among children and adolescents nationwide is 53.6%, and as many as 90% of college students are myopic. Pathological myopia may be no different from ordinary refractive error in the early stages, which is one of the reasons why it is ignored.

First of all, during the childhood and adolescent stage, once myopia occurs, it is recommended to go to a professional medical institution for medical optometry to understand the overall condition of the eyes, rule out the possibility of other eye diseases, and control and correct myopia under the guidance of a doctor to avoid developing into high myopia.

In addition, if you have developed high myopia, it is recommended to have a fundus examination every year to detect problems as early as possible and intervene in treatment as early as possible to minimize the loss of vision and visual function. If you encounter a sudden decrease in vision, distortion of vision, or dark shadows, you must see a doctor immediately.

Finally, regardless of whether you are nearsighted or not, we must develop good eye habits. Excessive or improper use of the eyes may lead to eye diseases of varying degrees. Don’t regret it when your visual function has been damaged!