Dr. Grossman’s Blog

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is abnormal blood vessel development in the retina of the eye in a premature infant.  It is a condition most often associated with babies born at less than 30 weeks weighing less than 3 pounds.

A study appearing in the March 4, 2011 online version of the journal Eye sought to determine the link between retinopathy of prematurity and birth weight.  Researchers found that though lower birth weight babies were more likely to have ROP than other babies, birth weight and the amount of weight that these babies gain in the first 4 to 6 weeks of life was not in itself a direct cause of the condition.  Source: http://www.nature.com/eye/

The good news is that most babies born with ROP will grow up free of vision problems.  About 1 in 10 may develop more severe retinal diseases

image by Optom95

Children need eye exams too, and, according to a new paper published in Pediatrics it is important that they get checked before they start school.  The US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines recommend that kids visit an eye doctor at least once between ages 3 and 5.  There is some debate as to whether exams for children between 1 and 3 are beneficial and likely to uncover problems.

The main concern is amblyopia, often called “lazy eye.”  It affects 2-4% of preschool children and is optimally treated, often with eye patching, between ages 3 and 5.  Tests also rule out strabismus and refractive errors.

There has been some professional debate regarding the efficacy of testing young children’s eyes, but there seems to be some consensus that newer testing technology does make these early exams a good idea.

Source: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/736518?src=rss

image by woodleywonderworks

Being accepted as a kid can be tough sometimes, especially if you have a “squint.”

According to a study published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, young children whose eyes are obviously affected by conditions like strabismus are less likely to be invited to birthday parties than their unaffected identical twins.  The preference was much stronger after the age of six when nearly 50% of kids looking at pictures of children with squints noticed immediately that they were “different.”

The results of this study lead researchers to conclude that “schoolchildren with strabismus seem less likely to be accepted by their peers, so corrective surgery for strabismus should be performed before the age of six years, when negative social implications may arise.”  Source: http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=17753

Learn more about other binocular conditions that can affect adults and children.

Amblyopia or “lazy eye” can lead to vision loss in a person’s weaker eye if it goes untreated.  Luckily, if amblyopia is diagnosed and worked on before age seven, more than three quarters of children can achieve at least 23/30 vision.

Image by ugaldew

Because there are concerns that caregivers can miss the signs of amblyopia, experts are looking into a better way to diagnose the problem.

A program in Iowa sponsored by he University of Iowa and the Iowa Lions Clubs worked together over the last decade to screen almost 150,000 children using technology called the PhotoScreener.  According to the source of this story, MedicalNewsToday.com, this device “records the pattern of light reflected through each of the child’s pupils as the child’s eyes are photographed.”

The PhotoScreener is also helpful in finding such conditions as  unequal visual acuity between the two eyes (anisometropia), high nearsightedness, high farsightedness, astigmatism, and strabismus.

For more on ways that Vision Therapy can help amblyopia and other eye convergence problems, please visit our website.

Image by Paul Moore

Scientists have been working to determine whether close, detailed work really can “ruin your eyes.”  We do agree that myopia (farsightedness) can be cause or exacerbated by excessive time spent at close-up work such as work on computers, sewing, accounting, jewelry work.

A study out of Turkey compared two groups of twelve year old boys – students engaged in “near-work” and apprentices working as skilled laborers.  Researchers publishing in Vision Research say “This prospective and controlled study suggested that reading and near work, important environmental factors, might cause refractive myopic shifts in emmetropic (having perfect vision) students.

For more on the causes of myopia and ways to prevent it, visit our website.

Image by Microsoft

Vitamin A deficiency is uncommon in the U.S., but it affects many people in the developing world.  One of first symptoms of a vitamin A deficiency is night blindness, which, if untreated can develop into full scale blindness.  According to the World Health Organization Report on Vitamin A Deficiency, night blindness is estimated to affect 5.2 million preschool-age children and 9.8 million pregnant women around the globe.

Writing on a recent case in The Lancet, doctors who treated a pregnant woman who came to the emergency room after several weeks of progressive sight loss described this particular case, “Vitamin A deficiency can be secondary to poor intestinal absorption due to weight loss surgery, Crohn’s disease or pancreatic dysfunction. Our patient had anorexia nervosa and had limited her diet to white onions, white potatoes, and red meat for the past 7 years.”

We usually recommend taking vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A with a small amount of fat in the diet. Food sources of vitamin A include: yellow and orange vegetables (including yams, carrots, mangoes, cantaloupe, apricots, butternut squash,and sweet potatoes), and asparagus, spinach, kale, bok choy.  If you wish for additional supplementation, the recommended dose is approximately 15,000 to 25,000 I.U. of beta-carotene daily.

Learn more about food as sources of vital nutrients at our website.