Question

On May 31st 2019, Mr W Van Rensburg, a twenty year old male first year student visited the Optometry Clinic at the University of Pretoria Medical School campus. He complained of headaches and blurred vision. He found reading in preparation for his upcoming exams difficult. He could not recall the exact time these symptoms started appearing however, he did mention that he often suffered with these symptoms when trying to study from a young age. When questioned about his ocular history, he said he had never visited an eye clinic before, but has often complained about only being able to see things clearly that were seen from a distance. When asked whether he has ever been diagnosed of diabetes, asthma or hypertension, he said no. Previous treatment of his symptoms only included eye-drops which proved ineffective.

1. If you were treating Mr Marie, with what condition would you diagnose him and why? (1 mark)

2. What has resulted in Mr Marie experiencing this condition (i.e. what causes this condition) and how does this differ from a person with perfect vision who does not experience these vision problems?

3. The use of what would correct Mr Marie’s vision problem, and what are his two options for treatment? (1 mark)

Answer 1

Answer 1:

I would diagnose Mr.Marie with Hypermetropia because in Hypermetropia which is also called as farsightedness, a person can see far objects clearly but could not see near objects clearly. Mr.Marie is not able to see near objects clearly and he is not able to study as his vision gets blurred and due to which he is having headache but on the contrary he is able to see distant objects clearly.

Answer 2:

In Hypermetropia the light gets focussed behind the retina. This happens due to shorter eye ball than normal and also due to weak ciliary muscles the converging power of eye lens lessens. In person with perfect vision the eye ball and ciliary muscle is normal.The perfect vision means 20/20 vision which is considered as normal vision. This means that one can read a letter at 20 feet that most human should be able to read at 20 feet. For Hypermetropia, 20/20 test is not suitable and it is only suitable for myopia (nearsighted) people.

Answer 3:  

Hypermetropia is corrected by spectacles or contact lenses which has convex lenses which can form the image on retina. It can also be corrected by refractive surgery like LASIK where the defective cornea is corrected so that the image can form on the retina.