6 days Ago By uaenews247
As the summer approaches in UAE, people start spending more time in swimming pools. One of the problems of people who where corrective contact lenses is that they tend to use soft contact lens while swimming. This can be very dangerous of your eyes.
Dr Sandip Mitra, HOD, Consultant and head of cornea unit, Alzahra Hospital Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Recently we got a 19 years young boy, who had swam with his contact lenses and presented to a local ophthalmologist with sever pain and difficulty in opening his eyes in bright light. He was examined and referred to cornea clinic at the Alzahra hospital Dubai and was examined by Dr Sandip Mitra, HOD and consultant cornea specialist.
The clinical picture showed a very severe infection due to a parasite known as acanthemeba. He was immediately subjected to lab tests and started on anti-parasite eye drops. Inspire of frequent medications, he slowly progressed and needed additional procedure known as collagen cross linkage.
However, he did not respond and subsequently went for a partial Cornell transplant known as Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty . And after 1 month of treatment he recovered his eye sight in the effected eye. Acanthemeba is a free floating parasite present in the the swimming pool and can attack the cornea of person wearing contact lens.
It attaches to the cornea and produce very severe form of corneal ulcer, for which the medications are not always available in UAE and we have to either prepare special kind of medications required to treat these cases. Inspite fo our best efforts, patients can progress to blindness. Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty is a very challenging procedure in these cases and if done successfully, it can restore your eye sight.
However, it takes a long recovery following the procedure. Customised powered swimming goggles and laser vision correction like smile Pro offered at the Alzahra Hospital Dubai, (cornea clinic), can save you the misery of suffering form such sight threatening complications due to acanthemeba infection. As the summer approaches, we must be careful when we take a dip in the pool or swim in the sea, wearing contact lens, can be dangerous and it is better to go for an alternative mode of correction, so that you can avoid disaster.
At Alzahra hospital Dubai, our cornea specialist and optometrist can help you to guide a safer alternative. Dr Sandip Mitra, HOD, Consultant and head of cornea unit, Alzahra Hospital Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Related.
