Why Are Eye Exams Important?

An ophthalmological examination is a general examination of the eye, including eye attachments and anterior segment examinations. Eye appendix examinations include eyelid, conjunctival, lacrimal, eyeball and orbital examinations.

Eye examination

An ophthalmological examination is a general examination of the eye, including eye attachments and anterior segment examinations. Eye attachment examination included

An eye examination can assess eye function. Common visual function tests include visual psychophysical tests (such as vision, visual field, color vision, dark adaptation, stereo vision, contrast sensitivity) and visual electrophysiology tests. Vision, visual field, and other tests require the examiner to use appropriate equipment for inspection and the patient to make judgments through psychological activities, so it is called visual psychophysical examination ^[1]

1, eyelid examination: generally under natural light with inspection and palpation examination. Main observations: Whether there are congenital abnormalities of the eyelid, such as eyelid defect, palpebral stenosis, ptosis of the upper eyelid. Eyelid skin abnormalities, such as redness, swelling, heat, pain, subcutaneous emphysema, and lump. The position of the eyelid is abnormal. Eyelid margins and eyelashes are abnormal.

2, lacrimal examination: including the lacrimal gland, lacrimal duct two parts. Check the lacrimal gland for lump, pay attention to the location of the punctum for varus and occlusion, the lacrimal sac area for swelling, tenderness and fistula, if there is any secretion overflowing from the punctum when the lacrimal sac is squeezed, and check the secretion of tears by instruments Volume, whether the lacrimal duct is narrow and blocked.

3. Conjunctival examination: Pay attention to the color of the conjunctiva, its smoothness and transparency, and whether there are congestive edema, nipple hyperplasia, follicles, scars, ulcers and new masses. Eyeball and orbital examination: Pay attention to the size, shape and movement of eyeballs, and check for involuntary nystagmus.

4, anterior segment examination: including corneal, anterior scleral segment, anterior chamber, iris, pupil, lens examination.

5, corneal examination: pay attention to the size and transparency of the cornea, surface smoothness, neovascularization, curvature and perception. Scleral examination: Note the presence of yellow stains, nodules, congestion, and tenderness in the sclera. Anterior chamber examination: Pay attention to the depth of the anterior chamber and whether the aqueous humor is turbid, bloody, pus, or foreign body.

6, iris examination: pay attention to the color and texture of the iris, whether there are new blood vessels, atrophy, nodules, cysts, adhesions, whether the root of the iris is broken, defects and tremors. Pupil examination: Pay attention to the size, position, and shape of the pupil, whether there is exudate, mechanized film, and pigment in the pupil area, and whether the pupil directly reflects light, indirectly reflects light, and whether near reflection exists.

7. Crystal check: Pay attention to crystal transparency, position, and presence of crystal.

Ophthalmological examination is the main basis for the diagnosis of eye diseases, which includes medical history collection, visual function examination and eye morphology examination. Visual function tests can be divided into subjective tests (requires the cooperation of subjects) and objective tests. The former includes vision and visual field; the latter is visual electrophysiological examination. Eye examination is an important part of the physical examination.

The most common problem among young people is refractive error. Such people should see a doctor, optometry and optician as soon as possible.

Among the elderly, the most common ophthalmic problems are cataracts and retinal arteriosclerosis. Most of the causes of cataracts are aging, that is, the opacity of the crystals increases with age. According to statistics, 100% of the elderly over 80 have this situation. If cataracts occur before the age of 50, you should consider whether there are other factors and actively seek medical treatment. The changes in retinal arteries can reflect the degree of arteriosclerosis in the body, which mostly occur at the age of 50 to 60 years or older, and often coexist with hypertension and diabetes. According to statistics, 70% of patients with hypertension can have retinal arterial changes, so this is also a criterion for judging the degree of hypertension; patients with severe diabetes also have fundus changes. Therefore, fundus examination should be performed routinely in patients with hypertension and diabetes.

1. Cataract: One of the common eye diseases with opaque lens. The lens maintains its transparency through a complex metabolic process, and absorbs nutrients in the aqueous humor and expels metabolism products through the lens capsule. Once the aqueous humor composition or membrane permeability changes, or other factors affect the metabolic process, it will cause opacity of the lens. According to its etiology, it is divided into developmental, senile, concurrent, traumatic, and toxic. It shows that the current vision is reduced, and even there is only light perception, lens opacity and milky white color ^[2] .

2. Glaucoma: A serious eye disease that can cause blindness and visual field loss due to increased intraocular pressure. Those with pathologically high intraocular pressure are sufficient to cause depression of the optic disc, optic nerve atrophy, and visual field defect, which are called glaucoma. It is a major blinding eye disease. Glaucoma is classified into three categories based on the anterior chamber angle, etiology, and age of onset: Primary glaucoma, which develops in both eyes, and its pathogenesis is not very clear. Angle glaucoma and open-angle glaucoma are the most common. Secondary glaucoma, due to other eye diseases, the aqueous humor is blocked. Common causes include post-circle pupil adhesion caused by iris ciliary inflammation, cataract swell and premature periods, eye trauma, iris neovascularization, etc .; congenital Glaucoma, caused by abnormal development of the anterior chamber angle of the embryo. The principle of glaucoma treatment is medication and surgery to lower intraocular pressure. The specific measures vary according to different types.