The Clinic is fully equipped for paediatric examination. We offer specialised appointments that include an examination of the eye sight as well as of the ocular movements, for children of all ages, by an experienced orthoptist. We screen binocular vision as well. Subsequently, an in-depth refractive examination with pupil dilatation may be indicated as well as the prescription of glasses.
Except the most common refractive conditions (myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism) treated with the use of glasses, the main conditions found in children are amblyopia and strabismus.
–Amblyopia occurs when there is a difference in the refractive power between the two eyes or in the event of a congenital cataract. This difference induces a loss of vision in one of the eyes and it can lead to an irreversible loss of vision of the affected eye. The orthoptic treatment includes a prescription for glasses and/or patching of an eye. Some surgery may be needed in some cases.
–Strabismus (squint) generally occurs at birth or during the child’s early years and it affects around 3% of the population. The child needs a specialised appointment if it persists after 6 months of age.
It is a defect of parallelism of the visual axis: one eye looks straight ahead and the other looks in another direction.
There are three different types of strabismus :
- the convergent strabismus or esotropia: one eye turns inwards, towards the nose ;
- the divergent strabismus or exotropia: one eye turns outwards ;
- the vertical deviation or hypertropia: one eye turns upwards or downwards.
THE SYMPTOMS
Deviation of one of the eyes
Sometimes, important loss of vision of the deviated eye (amblyopia) can become irreversible if not treated in time.
MANAGEMENT
The use of an adequate optical correction is paramount and it also may resolve the strabismus problem.
In certain cases, a surgical approach to one or more eye’s muscles is necessary. The surgery itself is done under general anaesthesia as a day case and it is also possible to do it early in life. However, sometimes, several surgical interventions are needed in order to achieve the best results both functional and/or aesthetic.