Many, having heard about such an operation as scleroplasty of the eyes, only shrug their shoulders in surprise, since they do not even have a vague idea of this type of surgical intervention. Now, more and more common operations, such as appendectomy, bougienage or hernia repair, are arriving at the hearing. Many ophthalmological operations are practically not known to a simple average citizen.
What is scleroplasty of the eyes?
Scleroplasty of the eyes is an ophthalmic surgery that is performed to stop the progression of the myopic process in the eyeball. It is mainly carried out in childhood adolescence, although this is not an absolute constant. Its need is due to the physiological characteristics of the eye in children suffering from myopia. The myopic eye differs from normal in increased anteroposterior size. This fact is confirmed by ultrasound examinations of the eyes of patients with myopia. As a rule, their eyes are a couple of millimeters larger than those with normal age-related refraction. One millimeter of eye size equals three to four diopters. Therefore, the larger the anteroposterior size or axis of the eye, the correspondingly higher myopic clinical refraction in this eye. At puberty, not only the growth of the musculoskeletal system and hormonal restructuring occurs, during this period the load on the organ of vision and the increase in the eyeball in size also increase. The sclera in myopic children is very weak, if it is not strengthened in time, then a sharp jump in the myopic process for the worse can occur. In order to prevent this undesirable effect, scleroplasty of the eyes is performed. In no case should it be confused with another consonant manipulation, such as scleroplasty of veins. These are completely different concepts. With scleroplasty of the veins, special sclerotherapy drugs are introduced into the varicose veins of the lower extremities, which reduce the symptoms of the underlying disease. With scleroplasty of the eyes, nothing like this happens.
Scleroplasty in children is done in several versions. However, the principle of all such actions is the same: subconjunctively, grafts are introduced in several squares, the task of which is to strengthen the sclera and not allow the posterior segment of the eye to increase in size. At the age of 12 years, such surgical intervention is done under intravenous anesthesia, in the teenage period it is quite possible to carry out under the influence of local anesthetics, which are widely presented on the pharmaceutical market in the form of convenient and highly effective drops.
Usually scleroplasty of the eyes is quite easily tolerated by children of all age groups. Complications of this operation are minimal. The ophthalmologist's qualification is the main criterion for the successful outcome of this medical manipulation. Possible complications are:
- rejection of the scleral flap;
- displacement of the flap to the limb;
uveitis, endophthalmitis;
-moving the flap under any oculomotor muscle and the double vision caused by this action;
- divergence of joints on the conjunctiva.
However, with the proven technique, such undesirable effects are practically not found. It should also be remembered that this type of operation is not a panacea for myopia. He only “inhibits” the aggression of myopia for a certain time, but does not completely eliminate it. In myopic disease, when the progression of myopia is uncontrollable, scleroplasty may not have any therapeutic effect.