Ipads, mobiles and screens in general are turning myopia into "a true global epidemic". This is warned by one of the leading experts in our country in the field, Dr. Juan Álvarez de Toledo, who after developing his professional career at the Barraquer Clinic in Barcelona, has joined the medical dream team that is in charge of the Oftalvist Ophthalmological Clinic of the Catalan capital as medical director. Although still far from the figures presented by the hypertechnological South Korea, with up to 50-60% of children affected, he warns that also in our country the percentage, which is around 20-30%, is worrying and is increasing.
The doctor, a specialist in corneal, cataract and presbyopia, refractive and reconstructive surgery of the anterior segment, points to mobile phones as the most harmful, because they have smaller screens and "because children often look at them in the dark". The situation would improve considerably "if they spent three hours a day playing outdoors." Simple, but the vast majority don't.
In this sense, he points out the importance of opting for glasses when dealing with child patients. Currently, he warns, "orthokeratology therapies are in vogue, in which night contact lenses are placed to prevent myopia and which are sold by some opticians without going through the ophthalmologist, and we are getting serious complications, I have already seen three or four cases of eyes lost by amoebas”.
To avoid problems, it is important to bet on qualified professionals and reference centers. At Oftalvist, the experienced professional team is the axis on which the system pivots, but they also have the invaluable support of the latest technology, "of great help in diagnoses". In 2004, they were pioneers in implementing the first femtosecond laser in Europe and Spain for a 100% laser operation. It is basically used for refractive surgery, myopia, astigmatism and farsightedness, and its great effectiveness and rapid recovery: -"vision is recovered practically in hours", says the doctor- explain the boom it has experienced in recent years.
However, despite the fact that the laser sounds to patients "like a magic word", the doctor warns that not everything is the best option for everyone. "As doctors we have a maxim, primum non nocere, it is a priority to never cause harm, so each case must be carefully assessed, and we can speak, for example, of a percentage of 20% of young people who want to undergo laser surgery and come out with a ' no' from the consultation, and then you have to go to the intraocular lenses”.
These ICL lenses are implanted without the need to remove the lens, but rather the surgeon places them in the posterior chamber behind the pupil, between the iris and the lens, and they are optimal for patients with high myopia or hyperopia, with very thin corneas. or with some biomechanical alteration or dry eye. Álvarez de Toledo points out that it is a procedure that is almost always reversible and that allows correction of up to 18 diopters of myopia and 10 of hyperopia. The recovery is very fast and contrary to what some fear, it does not become opaque or 'fabric' over time. At most, he points out, it is changed only once in a lifetime without going into the operating room, with an outpatient procedure.
Another of the most demanded interventions in Spain, with around 500,000 a year, and in which the doctor is a specialist, is cataract. Their appearance depends on genetics and sun exposure, but if we lived 100 years, he points out, we would all end up suffering from them. For those affected by this ailment -increasingly numerous due to the aging of the population-, it is clear: the only option is surgery. “There is no medical treatment, there are no drops, there is no light that can liquefy them. There are pharmaceutical companies working on it, but at the moment the reality is that there is nothing”. The good news is that the result of the surgery is excellent in 95% of cases, complications are very rare and the operation is painless and lasts only 10 minutes. In general, in just one week the patient can see perfectly.
At Oftalvist, they have also recently incorporated innovative 3D technology for this intervention in their operating room in Barcelona. This, he relates, “offers much higher resolution than the microscopes our generation had always worked with. I stress to young professionals that they use the Playstation a lot, because if they are prepared to play video games, the ability to keep an eye on screens, indicators, lights... it is very useful, because the future will go that way”. In fact, he explains, in ophthalmology virtual simulators are already being used for residents to start operating.
