Nowadays, there are more and more people with myopia, and there are indeed many with high degrees.
Some patients, hearing some rumors of high myopia, came to me with great anxiety:
Doctor, can I play ball?
Doctor, can I donate blood?
Doctor, can I give birth smoothly?
Some people are so worried about this that it affects their normal life and even very important medical decisions. However, some patients did not care, so that they missed the best time to see a doctor.
Today, let Dr. Clove have a good talk with you about high myopia.
High myopia ≠ high myopia fundus lesion
Myopia has a commonly used classification standard: degree is greater than 600 degrees, can be called high myopia. However, this standard is relatively simple and crude, without taking into account the influence of astigmatism, nor considering the presence or absence of fundus lesions.
Most people’s myopia belongs to axial myopia: the anterior and posterior diameter of the eyeball in such patients becomes longer, just like a table tennis ball is pulled into the shape of an egg. This causes the light to not be accurately concentrated on the retina of the fundus of the eye, causing the visual signals received by the retina to be unclear, that is, things cannot be seen clearly.
Generally, the higher the degree of myopia, the longer the eyeball is pulled, and the greater the possibility of fundus lesions. However, there are still great individual differences:
- Some people’s myopia has not reached 600 degrees, and obvious fundus lesions have already occurred. There are also a small number of people with high degree of myopia. Fundus examination is normal but 600 degrees is not a [watershed], and doctors are mainly concerned about fundus or not.
Myopia is affected by both heredity and environment, and genetic factors play a great role in high myopia, especially high myopia fundus lesions. However, myopia is not a simple genetic disease, it is affected by a variety of genes, so, the next generation that is not high myopia must also be high myopia, and it is possible to be completely normal.
Try not to exercise violently for high myopia.
Patients with high myopia need to avoid strenuous exercise, especially those that have direct impact or obvious shock on eyeballs and head, such as diving, bungee jumping, boxing, high jump, and some violent shaking games in amusement parks.
As for basketball, football, badminton, etc., it can be carried out, but we must protect our eyes from trauma.
Can high myopia donate blood? Can we give birth naturally?
Looking up various literatures, there is no sufficient reason why patients with high myopia cannot donate blood or give birth smoothly.
If eye problems are caused by these activities, the most important factor may be that the patient has already developed fundus diseases and is more prone to retinal detachment.
Therefore, we can’t just pay attention to the degree, it is best to find an ophthalmologist first to see if there is fundus disease. If you are worried about risks, but don’t take the initiative to see a doctor, you have to wait until the problem occurs before you blame it on [giving birth]. That is really wrong.
People with high myopia are more prone to fundus diseases.
Although there is no sufficient evidence that high myopia cannot donate blood or give birth smoothly, people with high myopia are more likely to have fundus retinopathy.
As the eyeball is [elongated], each layer of tissue in the eyeball wall will become thinner and atrophy accordingly. Especially after the retina becomes thinner, it is easy to cause degeneration zones and holes in the peripheral part of the retina, which will further lead to retinal detachment. The macular region at the center of the retina may also have various pathological changes such as hiatus or hemorrhage, which will seriously affect vision.
These lesions can cause blindness, some can be prevented and treated by timely laser or surgery, while others do not have good treatment methods, vision may become very poor, and wearing glasses does not work.
In addition, in addition to fundus retinopathy, people with high myopia are also prone to lens dislocation, cataract, open angle glaucoma and other problems.
How to prevent complications of high myopia?
For patients who are already highly myopic, the most important thing is to have regular ophthalmic examination. It is generally recommended to have an examination every six months.
Regular examination, the focus is on the fundus. Must drop drugs dilate the pupil, thorough examination of the whole retina. If you can find problems on the retina in time, whether thinning, degeneration or hiatus and other pathological changes, and carry out fundus laser photocoagulation to prevent, the possibility of retinal detachment will be greatly reduced.
What needs to be reminded is that if the pupil dilation examination is carried out, do not drive on the same day. It is better to be accompanied by relatives. There may be a few hours when things will be slightly blurred.
How should high myopia be matched with glasses?
1. Framed glasses
The height of myopia glasses, the lens is thicker and heavier, the deformation of the visual object is also more obvious, wearing easy to appear dizziness and other discomfort. And if equipped with sunglasses, because the frame is larger, discomfort is more obvious. Therefore, it is generally recommended to use aspheric, high refractive index thin lenses.
2. Contact lenses
Compared with frame glasses, contact lenses are close to the eyeball and will not cause visual deviation like frame glasses optically. The visual effect is much better and it is a better choice for people with high myopia.
In addition to the soft contact lenses available in the optician’s shop, there are also hard contact lenses (RGP) and orthokeratology lenses (OK lenses) available in hospitals for you to choose from. Among them, wearing OK lenses is the only method that has been proved to delay the deepening of myopia in teenagers.
3. Surgical treatment
Adult patients if you don’t want to wear glasses, you can also consider excimer laser myopia correction surgery. However, considering that the higher the degree of myopia, the thicker the cornea needs to be cut off during the operation. In order to ensure the safety of the operation, some patients cannot do the operation and must go through a complete preoperative examination.
4. Prevention first
No matter how to correct and treat high myopia, it can only be regarded as “mending the fold after a sheep is lost”, because there is no way to retract the elongated eyeball.
Therefore, the best prevention method is to develop good eye habits from an early age, exercise more outdoors, and try to avoid entering the ranks of [high myopia].