October 18, 2021
Myopia surgery has several advantages but does it help to treat or prevent retinal diseases? The Ophthalmologist Carolina Abreu explains that it does not:
Myopia is a refractive error characterised by difficulty in focusing on objects at distance and generally, the origin of myopia is an exaggerated growth of the eye, an excessive stretching of the eyeball. In other words, myopic eyes are generally larger than normal; associated with this exaggerated growth, there is some fragility of the ocular structures, namely of the retina; hence, patients with myopia have an increased risk of retinal diseases.
In fact, myopia can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery, but unfortunately, even if we perform refractive surgery, what we are correcting is the refractive error, the patient's graduation, but not the alterations that already exist in the eyeball or that may appear in the future. Therefore, retinal diseases are neither cured nor prevented with refractive surgery and it is extremely important that myopic patients, especially those with higher myopias, maintain regular follow-up in ophthalmology appointments so that they can be treated or diagnosed in a timely manner, and that they are particularly attentive to the appearance of some symptoms, namely floaters, flashes of light, alterations in the peripheral visual field or even central alterations of the visual field and, in this case, they should look for ophthalmological help as soon as possible.
In tomorrow's programme we will learn more about the treatment of ocular diabetes.
