Pathological Myopia +?

[SharonRobertson]

My husband has been diagnosed with pathological myopia. He has been extremely nearsighted (legally blind w/o his contacts) his entire life, but in the past few years he has developed floaters; also, he has difficulty reading because when he closes one eye the horizon curves down and when he closes the other eye, the horizon curves up so together he's got some double vision going on. Other than yearly exams to monitor, is there any other course of treatment he should be exploring?

[Sandra M Brown, MD]

The curved horizon effect might be from astigmatism.  If your husband has mild astigmatism and very high myopia, it is not unusual for the contact lenses to correct only the myopia because getting them to do both things at once is difficult and costly.  Conversely, if his contacts correct both the nearsightedness and the astigmatism, then you are dealing with a side effect of these very complicated contacts.  In any even, this sounds like an optical problem.  There is a fair chance it could be solved though some combination of contacts and glasses.

[nickppatel]

Search this website for the procedure known as "posterior pole buckling."