What is dangerous to the cloud of lens with congenital cataract in children. What is disturbing many parents: does newborns have a cataract? Point cataract in children treatment

06.08.2020 Insulin

For the treatment of illness today, the surgical method is used. A clouded lens is removed, and an artificial intraocular lens (IOL) is put on his place. Indications for the operation, the time of it and the optimal time of the implantation of a piece lens is determined individually. As a rule, children operate at the age of 1-3 months, and IOL put later.

The reasons

The resultant cause of congenital cataracts are gene and chromosomal mutations. As a rule, children receive a defective gene from one of the patients of parents. Also, congenital cataract can be one of the symptoms of Down syndrome, Martha, Elessa Dunlos, Lowe, and other gene defects lead to a violation of the synthesis of structural proteins and closer to the lens.

The cause of cataracts in newborns may be a violation of the intrauterine development of the fetus. This may be caused by the action of teratogenic (harmful) factors on the mother's body during pregnancy.

The development of cataracts in the newborn can provoke:

  • Toxic substances (nicotine, alcohol, tetracycline antibiotics and some others medications). Women's blood toxins penetrate the growing baby's body and violate its normal development.
  • Endocrine diseases and metabolic disorders in the body of the mother (diabetes mellitus, galactosemia, Wilson-Konovalov disease, pathology thyroid gland). Metabolic disorders have a negative effect on the fruit and eventually lead to defects in its development.
  • Bacterial I. viral infections (rubella, toxoplasmosis, windmill, syphilis, influenza). If a woman during pregnancy persecuted one of these diseases, a child has a lot of risk to be born with cataract and heavier defects. Transferred in 1-2 trimester of rubella is an indication for artificial interruption of pregnancy.

Views

With a massive cataract that interferes with the normal development of the eye, the child is sent to an ophthalmic surgeon, which determines the testimony for the operation and conducts surgical treatment.

Diagnostics

You can identify pathology in the third trimester of pregnancy with ultrasound screening. Statistics show that such a method is reliable and, with sufficient care, the uzist allows you to diagnose the cataract in advance. In newborns, the disease can be identified using inspection and additional methods Research.

Methods of diagnosis of congenital cataracts:

Method Description Result
Visual inspection Ophthalmologist carefully examines the child with good lighting During the examination, the doctor can reveal white spots that are localized in the pupil area
Biomicroscopy. The method involves inspection of the eye of the baby in the light of the slit lamp Biomicroscopy allows you to see the closet of the lens, and also clearly define their size and localization.
Ophthalmoscopy. The doctor examines the eye bottom of the baby using the straight or indirect ophthalmoscope for this The survey allows you to identify the retinopathy of newborns, which has similar symptoms
Ultrasound eyeball The kid is examined using a special apparatus Ultrasound makes it possible to visualize the structures of the eyeball and reveal the cloud of lens

Treatment

If there are minor clouds, the treatment of congenital cataracts is carried out conservatively. The sick child is prescribed cytoprotectors and vitamins. Unfortunately, with massive cataract, medication therapy does not have the desired effect.

Surgery It is shown to children with central turbidity lens, which greatly reduces visual sharpness. Experts recommend to remove such cataracts at the age of 6 weeks 3 months. The operation is most often performed by aspiration irrigation. The question of the implantation time intraocular lenses is still disputes in medical circles.

Some doctors believe that the production of Iol impedes the normal growth and development of the eyeball. Hence, artificial lens It is better to implant the child later, at the age of three or more.

On the other hand, intraocular lens ensures the most qualitative and physiological correction of vision. Her setting helps to avoid the development of amblyopia and others unwanted consequences lack of lens.

Rehabilitation

The recovery period after removing the lens lasts a few weeks. During this time, the child's eye will completely heal. If the operation was performed in early age, A few years later, the baby will need another surgery (implantation of intraocular lens).

On the first week after the operation in the eye, the child needs to drip the prescribed medication. They are necessary for the prevention of infectious and inflammatory complications. If the baby did not put an IOL, in the future, parents need to ensure that the baby wore optical correction tools (glasses or contact lenses). This step is necessary for the normal development of the eye and prevention of amblyopia.

Prevention

The prevention of the disease must be carried out during pregnancy. Future mom needs to carefully follow health and avoid action harmful factors external environment. She will need to completely abandon smoking and drinking alcohol. Women with diabetes during pregnancy should be under the permanent observation of the endocrinologist.

If during the screening ultrasound surveys from the future kid revealed serious defects, a woman can recommend an artificial interruption of pregnancy. Abortion is needed when a child has severe, incompatible malformations of development.

Useful video about congenital cataract


Cataract - the pathological condition of the organ of vision, accompanied by turbidity of the lens. IN childhood The disease is more often associated with congenital factors. According to statistics, 5 newborns are diagnosed with cataracts from 100 thousand. Older children are subject to a disease in 3-4 cases out of 10 thousand. The disease is progressive and can lead to blindness. Timely appeal to medical help Provides the most favorable forecast.

Cataract symptoms in children

The symptoms of the disease develops from several factors: one eye is affected or both, the degree of cloud of lens, the location of the focus of clouding.

It is difficult for parents to establish the symptoms of cataracts in newborns, but this function is performed by doctors in the maternity hospital. Then vision check in children in 1 month of life with a prophylactic inspection.

In some cases, the cataract has a property to appear later as follows:

    One or both pupils become gray or white;

    Eye movement becomes fast and uncontrollable;

    The acuity of sight is reduced, the child cannot focus on the facility, the active monitoring of the movements of the surrounding people is reduced.

The first signs of the cataract development are expressed by changes in the behavior of the child: the baby cannot focus on the toys, considers them only with one eye, at an older age in children with cataract decreases the ability to learn, they are difficult to focus. Parents should take carefully to the problem and contact an ophthalmologist.

These symptoms can signal not only Cataract, but also serious diseases. If at least one of them requires a doctor's advice.

Catakti causes in children

It is not always possible to establish the cause of cataracts in humans. To date, in ophthalmology, a number of causes of the disease are distinguished:

    Hereditary factor. The genes transmit pathology from parents to the child in each fifth case of cataract diagnostics.

    Transferred infections during pregnancy.

    Congenital cataracts can provoke the following infections transferred by the mother:

  • Premature children.

    Mechanical damage. Cataract in children may arise as a result of eye injury or after surgical intervention.

    Galaktosemia associated with a violation of metabolic functions in the body. Pathology is manifested by failures in the development of the enzyme of galactose.

The identification of cataracts in children often occurs on the planned examinations of the doctor, so it should not be neglected.

Views

In childhood, cataract can be two types:

    Congenital, diagnosed immediately after birth or for a short period of time after delivery;

    Acquired, detected in a few months and even years after the appearance of the world.

Congenital cataract is difficult to prevent. A woman should carefully follow their health during pregnancy, comply with all the prescriptions of doctors regarding possible infections.

Cataract diagnosis in children


Congenital cataract can be diagnosed already within the walls of the maternity hospital. In other cases, these are the observation of parents and mandatory scheduled visits to specialists.

If a cataract suggests a cataract, special drops are prescribed to expand the pupil. Then there is a visual examination of the eyes with medical equipment equipped with a magnifying glass and a lighting device. So the doctor will be able to assess the condition of the organ of vision and see even the initial manifestations of cataracts.

Lumbout lens and the absence of red reflex from the eye dna - signs for which the doctor diagnoses the cataract in the child.

Cataract treatment in children

If the cataract is located on the periphery of the eye and does not affect the visual sharpness, then the testimony for surgical removal can not be. The disease is removed by the operating path when the clouding is in the central part, and the vision worsens.

Cataract treatment in children is a three-step program:

    Survey. Before the operation, you need a complete examination of both eyes, even if only one is affected. In addition to cataracts, the bodies of vision may also have other visually diagnosed, pathology. For this reason, it is important to estimate all the risks that can be both during the operation and in the rehabilitation stage.

    Directly operation. Surgical intervention in childhood is possible only with use common anesthesia. The specialist uses a microsurgical tool to remove cataracts. In this way, it is possible to completely remove pathology and is almost completely excluded. repeated appearance Diseases. Stationary stay after surgery is necessary only for babies under 3 months of age. Older children can return home already on the day of operation.

    Rehabilitation. As a rule, after surgery, the doctor prescribes special drops. During the recovery period, it is impossible to rub and visit the pool. By appointing a specialist, a child can wear glasses or lenses, corrective visual perception of objects. During this period, it is important to regularly visit the doctor to assess the degree of rehabilitation and timely correction of possible deviations.

After the operation, a child may have some redness and. When these manifestations are found, an urgent appeal to the doctor is necessary to eliminate the infection and weakening of the eye muscles.

Cataract is a serious ophthalmologic pathology requiring continuous control and treatment. The disease is more common in adulthood and old age, but the children are subject to Cataract. To eliminate the occurrence and development of pathology, planned inspections are required and attentive attitude towards any changes in the behavior of the child.


Violations childhood Always have serious consequences for the other child's life. Unfortunately, despite today's level of development of medicine, this problem has not lost its relevance, since quite often we face congenital diseases and pathologies that are almost impossible to prevent.

One of these serious problems with which young parents may face are cataracts at their newborn chad. Nevertheless, even with such a diagnosis, it is not necessary to give in a panic.


What it is?

Usually under the cataract doctors imply the process of clouding a lens in a human eye. In order to fully understand this problem and its consequences, a small retreat should be made to the physiology of our visual apparatus.

Inside the eye of a newborn baby, as well as in any other person, a lens is located. It is a special vitreous body, in shape resembling a bicon-like lens. Such an unusual, but a very significant body is necessary for the correct refraction of light waves and focusing the image on the retina. It is thanks to this mechanism that we are able to perceive the world visually around us.


Congenital cataract is manifested in the form of a violation of the normal protein structure inside the lens. As a result, this segment of the child's eye is muttered and, accordingly, its ability to skip the light is lost. Depending on the degree of severity of this process, it may be observed as a slight impairment of vision and almost complete blindness, which manifests itself in the reflex perception of the source of bright light.


The main problem, which frowns congenital cataract in children, this is the influence of this disease for the further life of the baby. Many of the kids are not able to perceive the objects around them normally, it is difficult for them to navigate and adapt to space, and other social problems are manifested with age, for example, the communicative competence of the younger child is reduced.


Depending on the degree of impairment of vision, there are several groups of children: with border vision between the norm and reduced, with reduced vision, visually impaired, blind.

It should also be noted that congenital cataracts can progress over time. However, this disease never applies to the crust borders, that is, does not affect other sections of the eye.


Causes of appearance

As a rule, if we are talking about congenital violations, doctors make it difficult to give an accurate answer to the question that it was exactly the reason for their appearance. Nevertheless, modern medicine allocates a number of factors that can provoke the development of congenital cataracts from your baby long before it appears on the light. The most significant among them are:

  • Violation exchange processes Both the child himself and the mother during pregnancy. Most often we are talking about diseases such as diabetes, various degrees Avitaminosis, hypocalcemia, dystrophy.
  • Sometimes cataract develops as a result of another specific inflammatory processwho started in a child in the womb of the mother. For example, the cause can be the intrauterine Irit - inflammation of the iris.


  • Intrauterine diseases provoked infectious agents. Quite often, the newborn is diagnosed by cataract if their mother during pregnancy has suffered a herpes virus, chickenpox, rubella, syphilis.
  • Pathology may also be due to genetic disorders. Usually, in this case, congenital cataract accompanies another chromosomal syndrome, for example, Martha, Down or Low syndrome.
  • Also congenital cataract can be inherited by a child from one of the parents.



Classification

To date, medicine knows several different cataract options. The main categories of this pathology have been studied and entered into the official list of CMB-10 disease classifications. In accordance with this list, the following options for congenital children's cataracts are distinguished:

  • Capsular cataract. It is characterized by an isolated lesion of only the front or rear surface of the lens. The turbidity process visually can spread both on a part of the pupil and for the entire surface, so the quality of the child's view directly depends on the degree of development of pathology. As a rule, capsular cataract is a consequence of inflammatory disease transferred in the womb.


  • Polar. In this case, the process extends not only to the surface of the crust capsule, but also on its inner substance. Visually can be affected by the front or rear pole of the pupil, from where it is the name of this type of congenital cataract, which, as a rule, strikes both eyes.


  • Layered cataract. It occurs most often and manifests itself in the defeat of the central part of the transparent core of both eyes, which manifests itself in a fairly serious violation of the newborn.


  • Nuclear cataract develops as a result of various genetic and hereditary factors. I am striking the core of lens of both eyes entirely, therefore, as a rule, leads to full blindness. In some cases, only an isolated embryonic core is affected, so the manifestations of violation of vision may be minimal.


  • Full shape Cataracts hit the entire body of the lens. In newborns with such type of cataracts there is no vision and only light perception is preserved.


How can I reveal?

It is almost impossible to diagnose the cataract for the newborn almost impossible. Only a professional ophthalmologist is able to clarify such diseases after a number of additional baby's eye examinations. Nevertheless, parents should pay attention to general state Their child in order to turn to a specialist in a timely manner. In particular, you should not forget about some Symptoms indicating the likelihood of congenital progressive cataract in children:

  • During visual contact, the child's look is not fixed on the faces of his people around him or on various bright objects.
  • With the close review of the pupil of the child on it, muddy stains are noticeable.


  • The kid has squint. This condition is often accompanied by congenital clouding.
  • Also provoking the cataract factor is heterochromia - different color and size of pupils.
  • Excited and hectic condition in bright lighting.


  • The kid always turns the same side to people or the objects around him. This may indicate the presence of cataracts of the eye from the opposite side, which is perceived by the child as a "blind zone".

If you at least once watched your baby nystagm, then there is a quick twitching of the eyeball in vertical or horizontal directionThis is a serious reason for the visit to the ophthalmologist.


Treatment

Unfortunately, today there are no drugs that would allow to treat congenital cataract at home. On the other hand, it is far from always the case goes to surgical intervention. Much depends on the degree of severity of violation of vision. If the presence of clouding lens does not affect the ability of the child to see the world around the world, and the reduction of vision is easily adjusted by glasses or lenses, then such a cataract version only needs in regular observation.

Congenital or acquired cataract is a fairly common disease in children, which is not entirely defined by many as old. This is a pathology associated with clouding lens and causing disorder of vision up to blindness. Develops due to change chemical composition eye proteins. Problems are to diagnose difficulties.

The cunning deviation does not cause a child to pain, parents can not be suspected of anything, and the process as a result can lead to loss of vision. So informational awareness is a right step towards excluding the development of such serious complications.

Most often, children are diagnosed in innocent cataracts, much less often acquired. The reasons for the development of diseases in the other case - pathology of pregnancy, deviations in the health of the mother, or some external factors. Parents should know about them to protect their crumb from this pathology at the Stage of Conception.

The reasons for the innate disease:

  • hereditary factor (triggered in 23% of cases);
  • prematurity;
  • sugar diabetes moms;
  • reception during the pregnancy period of some drugs (for example, antibiotics of tetracycline row);
  • transferred in the period of tooling the child of infections and inflammatory diseases: rubella, cytomegalovirus, cortex, chickenpox, polio, Epstein-Barr virus, influenza, syphilis, toxoplasmosis, etc.

Causes of the acquired disease:

  • radiation, radiation radiation;
  • card and brain injury;
  • mechanical eye damage: injury or operation;
  • diabetes mellitus (guilty of Cataract in 30% of cases);
  • prolonged reception of powerful drugs;
  • infectious and inflammatory diseases;
  • disturbed metabolism;
  • galactosemia;
  • toxocamics;
  • unfavorable ecology;
  • smoking and alcoholism among adolescents;
  • non-use sunglasses.

As a rule, the causes of cataracts in children depend on its form. If it is congenital, it is due to internal factors. Acquired - often consequence of external.

One way or another, but in most cases, with the exception of genetics, parents are able to protect the child from such a dangerous and insidious disease. Cunning because it is difficult to recognize it in infant age.

Origin of name. The term "cataract" dates back to the ancient Greek word "καταράάκτης", which is translated as "waterfall, splashes".

Symptoms

It is impossible to see the newborn symptoms of cataracts to see the naked eye. The diagnosis is made either in the parent house (if the pathology is congenital), or some time after some time on the next preventive inspection of the precinct pediatrician. Rightly, parents themselves for some behavioral characteristics of the kid may suspect the disease.

The clinical picture is determined by several factors: one or both eyes are amazed as far as a muddy lens, where the focus is located.

Signs in newborns:

  • pupils (one or both) unnatural color - white or gray;
  • fast and uncontrolled eye movements;
  • the inability to focus on the subject;
  • lack of active observation of moving objects (people, machines, animals);
  • the viewing of the subject is predominantly with one eye;
  • strabismus;
  • the kid often rubs his eyes with handles.

Symptoms in older children:

  • reduced visual acuity;
  • attachment of the view;
  • weakening view in the evening and night;
  • uncomfortable sensations when wearing glasses and lenses;
  • "Lubricacy" of objects;
  • flashing in the eyes of stripes, points, spots;
  • with prolonged viewing, it is split objects;
  • pain, abundant tearing with bright lighting and look at the sun;
  • disturbed color perception;
  • problems with reading.

If the child is small, cataract prevents him from seeing the world around him fully. At the older age, problems in training are possible because of her. With any suspicions, parents should immediately sign up for the reception to an ophthalmologist. The hospital will hold complete diagnosis and determine the characteristics of the disease.

Parents note. Pay attention to how the newborn reacts to rattles and silent toys. If first he is frightened first, and then rejoices them, and on the second rarely draws attention, it may be a sign of cataracts.

Views

Cataract can develop and proceed in different ways. Depending on its features, ophthalmologists distinguish between several types of disease. Each of them requires special treatment or correction.

  • Nuclear

It is rarely diagnosed in children, as it is considered a senile disease: the center (core) of the lens is disturbed, which becomes muddy, yellowish, more dense.

  • Cork

Lounge of the crust or the outer part of the lens.

  • Subcapsular

Damage to the rear surface of the lens, under the capsule, where it is, usually develops from.

  • Layered

Bilateral heavy lesion of lens, which often ends with blindness.

  • Polar

Violation of the entire surface of the lens, most often - both eyes.

  • Secondary

Develops against the background of some diseases, surgical intervention, injuries.

  • Traumatic

It is formed after injuries of the eye, effect on it by strong chemicals.

  • Radius

Rare cataract caused by radiation, ultraviolet.

Well, accordingly, children distinguish congenital and acquired cataract depending on the time and causes of its development. Each type of disease is characterized by its features of flow and development. All this will be revealed during diagnostics.

Curious fact. Despite the fact that cataract is considered to be an ageal disease and is diagnosed mainly in the people of old age, it leads to prevalence among congenital pathologies of vision.

Diagnostics

A congenital disease in some cases is revealed already in the maternity hospital at the first test of vision in the newborn. But since this inspection is quite superficial character, not all pediatricians are able to notice it in the first days of the life of a new little man.

But with the following preventive visits to the cataract doctor big baby Received 85%. For this, the following diagnostic methods are used:

  • collection of anamnesis;
  • ophthalmoscopy: a child can stop special droplets before the procedure, expanding the pupil;
  • optical coherent tomography;
  • slit biomicroscopy;
  • echoofthalmoscopy (ultrasound Eye Apple);
  • elementary vision verification in older children.

During the diagnosis, the child determines the sharpness and field of view, is measured intraocular pressureStudies are performed spectator nerve and retina. And most importantly, the degree of turbidity of the lens and maturity of cataracts is revealed.

As a result of additional surveys, other violations - glaucoma or retinal detachment can be selected. Based on this data, treatment is appointed.

Statistics. According to data, about 7% of the population of the globe suffer from cataracts.

Treatment

Medical preparations, physiotherapores and folk recipes From the cataract does not exist. Despite the fact that studies are still underway, single way out From such a situation is the operation at the institutes of microsurgery of the eye.

If only the peripherals are affected, which does not affect the vision of the child, there are no indications for surgical intervention - doctors and parents in such cases occupy an expectant position. If the crystal is muttered over the entire surface and serious vision problems are diagnosed, the date of removal of the affected part of the eye is assigned.

Surgical treatment of congenital cataracts can be held from the first month of the baby's life. It all depends on the state of his health. Therapy includes three stages.

Survey

Before the operation, the child is performed a complete examination of the eye to eliminate some other, concomitant catarakt pathology. This allows you to evaluate all possible risks during surgery and avoid complications.

Operation

Surgical intervention when removing cataracts in childhood is carried out using general anesthesia. If both eyes are amazed, the operations are carried out separately. A special microsurgical instrument allows you to do this in just 15 minutes, promises to complete pathology and exclude repeated relapse.

Depending on the health of the child and its age, the following types of operations can be assigned:

  • intrakapsular extraction - removal of lens with a capsule;
  • extracapsular extraction - removal of lens without capsules;
  • cryostextraction - the method of lens to the tool and its subsequent extraction;
  • focoemulsification is the effect on the crystal of ultrasonic pulses through small cuts, which turns it into the emulsion, extracting with doctors.

Instead of lens, a special lens is inserted into the eye that performs the function of the extracted element. If the cataract has been treated in children up to a year, it is possible a stationary stay. The rest of the kids are returned home on the day of operation.

Rehabilitation

After the operation to remove cataracts, special drops are prescribed to children. In addition, the doctor necessarily tells parents what to do and what is contraindicated during this period.

Within 1 month, it is not allowed to rub eyes, swim. On the recommendation of a specialist, wearing glasses or lenses are possible, which correct the visual perception of many objects. Throughout the recovery period, it is necessary to regularly visit the doctor. It estimates the degree of rehabilitation and correction of deviations.

After the operation, a slight redness of the mucous membrane and a lung squint is possible. In this case, it is necessary to appeal to the doctor to eliminate the infection and weakening of the eye muscles. Surgical treatment of cataracts in children promises rapid recovery and return to full-fledged life without complications.

Myths. You can not cure Cataract folk remedies. The only true treatment with such a diagnosis is an operation.

Complications

Cataract complications in children are no less terrible than the disease itself. The most common among them are:

  • inflammatory processes: iridocyclite, will take away - will have to be treated with antibiotics;
  • increased intraocular pressure;
  • glaucoma;
  • full blindness;
  • secondary cataract;
  • retinal detachment;
  • lowering visual acuity - progressive myopia;
  • eyephoracy Eye Apple;
  • dislocation of lens.

However, timely appeal to the ophthalmologist and consent to the operation can save the vision of the child with any form of cataracts. Postoperative pathologies are diagnosed only in 1.5% of cases.

The initial illness is always treated much easier than to fight his disastrous consequences. And even better - to engage in prevention, starting from the moment the child is conceived.

Unfortunately... According to WHO, 45% of the blind people lost their vision only because it did not make an operation during the diagnosis of cataract.

Prevention

In order for the newborn child to do the Cataract Removal Operation in such a small age, which in itself is unnatural and undesirable, parents should initially think about protecting it from such pathology.

The prevention of the disease implies the following measures:

  1. If one of the parents suffered from the cataract, before conception (or at least during pregnancy), it is necessary to inform the gynecologist about this and go through relevant genetic surveys.
  2. Eliminate the risk of prematurity.
  3. Mom must raise any diseases in a timely manner, which she picked up during pregnancy.
  4. Do not take the same and do not give the child powerful medicines without appointing a doctor.
  5. Wrap it from any type of radiation and injury, especially heads.
  6. Try to live or at least spend more time in environmentally friendly areas.
  7. Exclude in adolescence smoking and alcoholism.
  8. From the very little age to teach the child to wearing sunglasses.

Keep in mind. Cataract - one of the most dangerous diseasesSince it does not cause pain, but at the same time leads to the most severe consequence in the absence of treatment - to blindness.

Parents should be extremely attentive to the development of vision from the child from the first days of his life. Much depends on pediatricians that are constantly observing small patients. On time the cataract detected is a guarantee of recovery and conservation of health in the future.

No need to believe that this is an elderly disease: Recently, such a diagnosis is increasingly putting newborns due to the changed environment and enough low level Life in some countries. Vigilance and care of adults in this matter is a cloudless future of children.

Vision plays a very important role in the processes of study and adaptation in the environment, for a child it is an extremely valuable mechanism for development. Unfortunately, many diseases of the eyes have grown significantly, experts explain this deterioration of environmental conditions, the wrong way of life, which is leading many people, and high loads due to constant contact with phones and computers. During a visit to the doctor, the diagnosis of Cataract leads many parents to the state of shock and all because of fear that the child may forever lose joy to see the world around all his paints. Such concerns are often bullied - modern technologies make it possible to slow down the destructive processes occurring in the body, but this is subject to timely treatment for help. In infants, such a disease is extremely rare - only a few cases per 10 thousand newborns, but under the influence of certain factors, the disease can develop at any age already as acquired pathology.

Congenital cataract: causes and symptoms

Many mistakenly believe that cataract is the formation of a film on a lens, which prevents the normal perception of surrounding objects by vision. In fact, the disease is not outside, but inside the eye, that is, the cataract is the clouding of the substance in the lens, which prevents the normal passage of light. A healthy lens is absolutely transparent, and clouding causes a decrease in visual acuity and without appropriate treatment can lead to its full loss.

Cataract can manifest itself a little cloudy on pupil

Such a disease as cataracts can develop on one eye or immediately on both. In the case of congenital type, the disease is most often applied to lens in both eyes. To reliably establish why this pathology takes place in newborns, still failed, but there are a number of factors that create favorable conditions for the development of disease and in some cases lead to its intensification:

  • hereditary character. Studies have shown that every fourth child is diagnosed with congenital cataract parents or suffered from a similar disease, or had a predisposition to it. This gave reason to argue that the disease can be transmitted by genetic means;
  • mother's diseases transferred during pregnancy. A number of infectious diseases that had to be transferred to the future mother can provoke intrauterine development in the child of cataracts (cytomegalovirus, windmill, rubella, toxoplasmosis, etc.);
  • chronic diseases of the mother (diabetes, galactosemia, Vilson-Konovalov disease);
  • cataract often occurs against the background of the presence of genetic pathologies in the type of Down syndrome and Werner syndrome.

Basic symptomatic manifestation Diseases are a decrease in visual acuity, turbidity and fuzziness of the resulting picture (sometimes a complete loss of vision occurs). The breast child cannot complain to the problem, and therefore it is possible to suspect cataract on the basis of the following symptoms:

  • on the pupil there is cloudy in the form of a small point or in the form of a disc;
  • the reaction to the light is present, but the view on parents or specific items does not record the kid, does not follow the movement of objects;
  • strabismus;
  • when the kid considers some item, he turns one side with a healthy eye (with one-sided cataract).

Photo Gallery: The main symptoms of congenital cataracts

It is not difficult to notice the full cataract (that is, the newborn is not difficult for a newborn - it is die even without special devices. Most often, it is precisely parents who are noticed immediately after birth or during the first three months of the life of the baby that the color of the pupil in a child is unhealthy.

Check the visual acuity in a newborn baby is not easy, the scale of the problem for the beginning is determined approximately based on the volume of clouding.

Cataract acquired type in children

The acquired cataract occurs usually at high age and is often one-sided character. This form of illness may occur in a child for such reasons:

  • traumatic eye damage (penetrating injuries, contusion);
  • the consequence of surgical intervention conducted on the eyeball;
  • reception of certain medical drugs;
  • inflammatory process inside the eyeball;
  • neof formation (tumor) inside the eye
  • endocrine type diseases (most often - diabetes mellitus);
  • vilson-Konovalova disease neurological type.

Kaiser-Fleischer ring - one of the reasons to suspect cataract

It is worth noting that there are factors that significantly increase the risk of cataract develops in the child. First of all, this is the lack of adequate treatment sugar diabetesSecondly - incorrect, irrational nutrition.

The main symptoms are similar to the congenital type of disease, but to detect the problem in time much easier - the child can already point out what begins to see worse. For cataracts characteristic:

  • reducing the intensity of perceived colors;
  • unpleasant sensations in bright lighting (a frequent complaint is a reaction to car headlights);
  • clouding lens (appearance on the pupil of a turbid region);
  • the picture becomes less clear, in front of the eyes as if a paddle or fog.

If the child began to complain about the minimum impairment of vision, immediately need to contact an ophthalmologist for conducting a survey. Timely response will help to avoid the most dangerous complication of the disease - full blindness.

Methods for the treatment of children's cataracts

Only a doctor, based on the data of the collected anamnesis and the results of an ophthalmological study can be diagnosed with the "Cataract".

Timely ophthalmological examination on cataract can save the child from many problems

Modern technologies allow you to treat cataract, and on early stages The treatment process is least traumatic. There are two ways - drug impact and surgical intervention.

Medicase therapy implies the use of special eye dropswhich contribute to the braking of negative processes in the lens and lead to resorption of formed turbidity. It is important to understand that this approach is not working in all situations, sometimes surgery is simply necessary, and, the sooner - the better. The absence of treatment can lead to an incurable complication - amblyopia (blindness due to inaction). Depending on the age of the patient and the state of his eyes, the following types of operations can be offered:

  • intracapsular extraction - a lens is removed along with a capsule, an ecstacapsular - without capsule;
  • the method of crystraction - during the procedure, the lens is combined to the tool and removed;
  • focoemulsification - through several small cuts on the lens, they act as ultrasound pulses, which turns it into the emulsion, which is then extracted by doctors.

Instead of remote lens, a special lens (artificial lens) is placed in the eye, which will perform the functions of the extracted element.

Cataract video in children