Astigmatism

Astigmatism is a refractive error of the eye in which there is a difference in degree of refraction in different meridians. Astigmatism occurs when the front surface of your eye (cornea) or the lens, inside your eye, has a slightly different surface curvature in one direction from the other.Astigmatism means that the cornea is oval like a football instead of spherical like a basketball. Because the cornea is an irregular shape, the eye can't focus light passing through it sharply on to the back of the eye or retina. However, the eye of a person with astigmatism is shaped more like a football or the back of a spoon. The retina is the light sensitive area at the back of your eye, like the film in a camera. Astigmatism often occurs with nearsightedness and farsightedness, conditions also resulting from refractive errors. A minor degree of astigmatism is usually not noticeable or comes with slight blurriness but a major ' degree of astigmatism causes blurriness for objects at any distance. The condition tends to remain constant, neither improving nor deteriorating much over time. Astigmatism often occurs along with nearsightedness or farsightedness . For example, the image may be clearly focused on the retina in the horizontal (sagittal) plane, but not in front of the retina in the vertical (tangential) plane.

Astigmatism is a mild and easily treatable imperfection in the curvature of your eye.Most astigmatic corneas have two curves - a steeper curve and a flatter curve. Refractive errors cause a disturbance in the way that light rays are focused within the eye. For significant curvature, treatment is required. Astigmatism causes difficulties in seeing fine detail, and can often be corrected by glasses with a cylindrical lens (i.e. a lens that has different radii of curvature in different planes), contact lenses , or refractive surgery . Usually, a person with astigmatism will have other visual problems such as short or long sightedness. Astigmatism may occur in varying degrees in each eye and can accompany myopia or hyperopia. Light is focussed on two points at the back of your eye, rather than just one. Astigmatism is extremely common, and affects most people to a degree, although many do not need corrective action.

Causes of Astigmatism

The common Causes of Astigmatism :

As the eye develops in the womb, several factors determine the shape of it, including inherited genetic factors and environment.
It can also result from pressure from the eyelids on the cornea, incorrect posture or an increased use of the eyes for close work.
Sutures that are tightly placed can cause a slight wrinkling of the cornea and the patient will experience astigmatism until the surgical wound is healed.
A condition called keratoconus can also cause astigmatism.
In astigmatism, the cornea is shaped more like a football, an oval shape, than the normal round shape like a baseball.
An eye injury may cause the cornea to scar, changing the path of light as it enters the eye.
But astigmatism may also result from an eye injury that has caused scarring on the cornea, from certain types of eye surgery, or from keratoconus , a disease that causes a gradual thinning of the cornea.

Symptoms of Astigmatism

Some common Symptoms of Astigmatism :

Distortion in portions of your visual field
Blurring of vertical, horizontal or diagonal lines
Headache and fatigue
Squinting and eye discomfort or irritation
Blurring and distortion of near or far-away objects,
The heart and blood vessels
Tired and dry eyes.
Difficulty in seeing fine detail, either close-up or from a distance. '

Treatment of Astigmatism

Glasses or hard contact lenses will correct astigmatism.
Another method for correcting astigmatism is by changing the shape of the cornea through refractive or laser eye surgery.
For astigmatism, special corrective lenses called toric lenses are prescribed.
Astigmatism can be corrected by soft contact lenses as well as hard contact lenses.
To understand the astigmatic ablation technique used in PARK, briefly presenting the different ablation profiles used for myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism is important.
It is worth discussing with a doctor the best form of correction or treatment for astigmatism to meet your needs and lifestyle.
An alternative to contact lenses is eyeglasses.
Like contact lenses, the variety of eyeglasses is wide

If you like this page, please post it on :

Our Most Popular Section

Acne - Acne information, picture, symptom, cause of Acne