What is astigmatism, its causes and methods of treatment?

Origin

Already from the name itself you can easily guess what is the astigmatism of the eyes and what it is connected with. The original name of the disease was derived from the Latin "stigma", which means "point". In this case, we mean the point of focusing the image. This name is given not accidentally, because the essence of the disease consists precisely in the wrong concentration of a beam of light rays.

Features of the disease

Astigmatism of the eye is one of the most common visual ailments in the world. In fact, to some extent, they suffer almost half of all people on Earth. For many, this disease begins in early childhood. To understand what astigmatism is, the easiest way is to learn basic information about the structure of the eye. As is known, human eyes possess two optical systems for refraction of light. This is the cornea and the lens, equally important for the construction of the correct image on the retina. Both natural designs are unique, each of them has its own characteristics, but they have something in common - this is the so-called concept of curvature. The cornea of a healthy person has a structure with almost perfect curvature. Thus, a beam of light passing through it, accurately focuses on the retina. People who suffer from visual impairment have changed these indicators.

What is astigmatism from a scientific point of view?

So what is astigmatism? This impaired vision occurs regularly, but it is very difficult to explain it. In rare cases, the cause lies in the irregular shape of the ocular lens. But in most of them, this disease is directly associated with optical distortion, which is common to all lenses. And since the cornea of the eye also has a spherical shape, this concept is inherent in it. The correct form for it is the absolute spherical, capable of refracting the rays of light in any plane equally. But there are also oblate or, on the contrary, elongated. This cornea can not properly focus the image, its curvature varies in certain places, and hence the rays reaching the retina are of unequal length. This causes distortion of the real kind of objects around. In the eye of an astigmatism sufferer, there is no single focal point, in contrast to the eyes of a healthy person. Due to fuzzy focusing, the output image is unclear and as if with blurry outlines.

What is the type of astigmatism acquired

It is known that this disease is inherent not only in adults: it is often diagnosed in children. It can be congenital or acquired astigmatism. The latter occurs with physical injuries that caused scarring in the cornea, as well as after poorly performed operations - due to incorrect surgical intervention.

Congenital astigmatism: what it is and how it manifests itself.

In this case, when it comes to an inherited visual defect, heredity comes into play. As a rule, those children whose parents also had this disease suffer from astigmatism from birth. But with the congenital type of this disease, visual impairment is small and practically does not worsen its acuity, and therefore passes unnoticed. Many people throughout their lives do not even suspect of its existence.

Symptoms of astigmatism

The symptomatology of this disease manifests itself not only in the apparent deterioration of vision, which without timely intervention is able to move to a more serious stage. Astigmatism is also often accompanied by prolonged headaches with visual exertion, excessive lacrimation, inflammation of the eyes and edges of the mobile age. It is not excluded the occurrence of conjunctivitis, rubbing in the eyes and overall increased fatigue.

Treatment of the disease

At the moment, three methods of astigmatism treatment are widely used:

- wearing glasses;

- wearing corrective contact lenses;

- surgical intervention.

In the first two cases, complex lenses and glasses with a cylindrical structure are used. The problem is that until they have appeared in wide access in our country. We have to make such glasses and lenses to order. Usually they have to be replaced more than once to find the right ones, but they are not cheap. In addition, many patients develop intolerance, only aggravating the main symptoms of astigmatism: visual discomfort, headache or even severe dizziness.

Operational intervention has its own significant advantages. It occurs with the current development of technology rather quickly and relieves the patient from the need for further correction of vision using other means. Curvature of the cornea in this case is eliminated physically. The surgical method of treatment of astigmatism is most effective among all existing ones, providing the maximum result in a short time.