PEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLOGY OR PEDIATRIC OPHTHALMOLOGY
At the Virgilio Galvis ophthalmological center we take care of the proper development of children and for this reason we take care of one of the main ways of stimulation, the visual system. This is why our center is designed to rule out serious and complex ocular, visual disorders that can alter the child's visual development and thus be able to intervene in time.
The first 8 years of life are very important in visual development and therefore it is vital that children are examined early in a Pediatric Ophthalmology consultation to be able to carry out the required treatments in a timely manner.
Refractive Defects
Prevention and early detection of ocular pathologies is essential for the good development of children.
Consultation in Time
The key to having good visual development is to consult in time and follow the following recommendations.
When is the best time to attend a Pediatric Ophthalmology consultation?
When talking to parents this is the most frequently asked question and the answer is: “it is never too early.” Sometimes parents doubt whether an ophthalmology consultation can be performed on a newborn, and the emphatic answer is “YES.” The purpose of the ophthalmological examination in pediatrics varies depending on the age of the patient.
Some more common alterations or pathologies are:
- Refractive errors in children
- Squint
- Amblyopia or lazy eye
Rule out congenital diseases (cataract, corneal alterations, ocular hypertension, etc.)
Rule out tumor pathology retinoblastoma (most common childhood retinal tumor), ocular toxoplasmosis, congenital cataract, congenital glaucoma, optic nerve malformations.
They may also suffer from eye deviations (strabismus), which in some cases are small and not easily detected.
Consultations for strabismus: the patient may twist one or both eyes continuously or sporadically.
Lazy eye consultations: the patient does not follow the images well by occluding the good eye.
Control of visual acuity (if the patient cooperates).
Ocular motor studies.
After the initial examination, an annual check-up is important, at least until the age of 8, since with growth, an elongation of the eyeball occurs simultaneously and myopia may appear.
Monitoring of previously diagnosed pathologies and their appropriate treatment.
Refractive errors are myopia, hyperopia and/or astigmatism and all of them imply or generate poor vision. These defects are especially harmful in childhood when they are not corrected, since it is during the first years of life that vision develops.
When one eye has a refractive error and the other eye does not, the brain chooses the image of the eye that sees best and cancels or stops using the other eye. If refractive errors are not corrected during childhood, especially before the age of 8, a lazy or lazy eye (amblyopia) can occur.
Myopia can grow with the child's development, since the size of the eye tends to increase (axial length). In contrast, farsightedness does not increase with development, and may decrease with increasing eye size. As for astigmatism, it is one of the most stable refractive errors and generally does not change with the development of the child.
Amblyopia, commonly called lazy eye, can be treated if detected in childhood
Amblyopia on many occasions, it is likely that we have all seen a child with one eye covered, what that little one suffers from is what is known as a lazy eye.
Amblyopia, which is the medical term to refer to this problem, is a decrease in vision without an organic lesion, and it can be due to several origins:
- Functional origin, what is known as strabismus.
- Anisometric origin, which occurs because there is a different graduation in each of the eyes.
- Organic origin, for example, derived from a waterfall.
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