Severe Myopic at age 6

[AAR]

My son who was a preterm is now 7 years. Except for his being severly myopic he is doing perfectly fine. We are quite concerned for his being severly myopic in both the eyes. Tomorrow, he is going for a  laser treatment for Retinal tears suspected by the doctor. Doctor is expected to check both eyes under anesthesia and repair the tears if found in the left eye.

How can we be sure if the treatment has been successful. Can the tear occur again? how can we prevent further damage to the eye?

What are the advance methods available across the globe to correct Severe Myopia for kids.

Any help from anyone who has experienced simmilar situation will help us to plan for tomorrow.

Thanks
R

[Forum-OD-MP]

"How can we be sure if the treatment has been successful."

only your surgeon can tell you.  or someone who can dilate your son's eyes and LOOK to see if they were repaired.

"Can the tear occur again? how can we prevent further damage to the eye?"

a tear CANNOT occur in the same exact spot once the repair has been made.  BUT! people who have tears, especially at such a young age, are kind of "prone" to having tears elsewhere in their eye.  they really cant be prevented.  they just have to be caught early.  no diet or lifestyle change or medication can prevent a retinal tear.

there is no real "advanced method" of myopia correction in children.  phakic iols are the newest thing for high myopia, but i dont know that many (any?) children are in the studeis for it.

how "severe" are we talking about here?  over -10.00?  just curious

[AAR]

Thanks for the prompt response.

The operation went through successfully. Two tears were found in the left eye and were repaired. Right eye was OK.

Left eye is -10 and right is -6.

Some time back left eye was Lazy...which is now corrected after the patching treatment for about 3 months 24/7 and then reduced frequency. We patch for about 1 hour now.

Next review of the eye is after 1 month. We are awaiting the lenses which can be worn in the night to contract the eye size and thereby have a better vision during the day.

My reading of this is purely regular monitoring by a specialist doc. I am lucky to have one of such doctor here.

We have stopped his computer completely... just making sure that the glare does not make things even worse.

Let me know if there is anything else that we can do / not do to better the situation.

Rgds

R

[Ag-i-doc]

"Left eye is -10 and right is -6."

in this case the left eye will probably be more "prone" to tears than the right eye ever will.  that doesnt mean he wont have a tear in the right, it just means that between those 2 eyes, having tears in the left eye is statistically more probable.

"We are awaiting the lenses which can be worn in the night to contract the eye size and thereby have a better vision during the day."

orthokeratology?  i am an orthokeratologist and a big fan of ortho-k, but i would probably not attempt ortho-k in his left eye.  already too nearsighted.  plus itsounds like he has what i call "pathologic" myopia (severe myopia at a young age).  it is my opinion and it has been my experience (and i'm sure there are other opinions on this) that ortho-k generally does not slow the myopia progression of pathologic myopia.  i personally think ortho-k works best for myopia control in the more garden-variety "juvenile myopia progression" cases.

"We have stopped his computer completely... just making sure that the glare does not make things even worse."

in my opinion the glare wont make anything worse.  wont make his vision worse, wont make his myopia worse, wont make his symptoms worse.  it should be a non-factor.  but again i guess there are probably differing opinions on this.

[lajamur]

My daughter's Rx went up 2.5 points from 18 mnoths ago from
-3.5 to -6.0.
My own ( Dad ) Rx is -10 , and it has been that since I was
15 . I had -6 when I was about 12-13 years old , so whay does my
daughter has such a Rx at this age. I know it is going to keep increasing, but is she likely to stop at my power and may go beyond -10.

Are there any symptoms for retinal detachment. The Optho suggests
check up every year. But how do we know if there are any
signs of tear in the period between so that we may catch it early.

Is she a candidate for Or K.

R M

[Eagle eyes]

A phakic IOL (Verisyse) could POSSIBLY be done in these children with high myopia. It would be off-label as it is FDA approved for people 21 and older, but I do know some ophthalmologists who do kids and they have done fabulously well. What cities are you in?

[sam12]

I have a 2 year old with high myopia, - 14D in both eyes.
We live near San Jose , California.
Eagle eye, Any good doctors who would do phakic IOL? I have been to visioninfocus.com and serached , but that gives general info, not specific

[Eagle eyes]

I know it is not just around the corner, but not that far
Get to Kerry Assil, MD in Santa Monica. He has done kids with phakic IOLs. A 3 year old boy traveled to him from Sydney, Australia. He will do the right thing for your son.

[sam12]

Many thanks,eagle eye. As a parent its terrifying to have kid with high myopia and no treatment . Every doc here seems to think wait till 18, which is too late.

Thanks again

[Michelle1973]

You don't know how happy I am to run across this forum.  I have a 6 year old son with Severe Myopia.  He is a -15 in both eyes.  I totally understand it when you say how upsetting it is.  I hate the fact that the doctor says there is nothing they can do for him at this point.  They just watch him really close.  As a mother or father you want someone to be able to fix the problem.  I have a brother who is 34 years old.  He is a -14 in both eyes.  He just was at a eye doctor appointment and the doctor told him that the only surgery for him is the contacts that are surgically put in his eyes.  There is no Lasik surgery for someone with his nearsightedness and astigmatism.  I have looked on the internet about this before and there is not much info about it.  It sounds like it is pretty rare.

[Eagle eyes]

Where do you live?

[Michelle1973]

We live near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

[Eagle eyes]

Vance Thompson, in Sioux Falls, SD is awesome. Lots of experience with high myopia.

[Michelle1973]

Thank you for your suggestion.  I'm curious how you know about this doctor in South Dakota.  I will check him out.  Thanks again.