Hyderabad: Here’s an alert: Excessive use of smartphone may lead to loss of vision.
It actually happened with a 30-year-old woman, who developed vision impairment due to long-term use of smartphone.
Dr Sudhir Kumar, a Hyderabad-based doctor, explained how the ‘smartphone vision syndrome’ (SVS) is caused.
Sharing a case study of his patient, the doctor explained how she corrected her vision.
“There were moments when she could not see anything for several seconds. This occurred mostly at nights when she got up to use the washroom. She was evaluated by an eye specialist and detailed evaluation was found to be normal. She was referred to rule out neurological causes,” Dr Sudhir wrote on Twitter.
He went on to say that his patient Manju developed symptoms of impaired vision after quitting her job as a beautician to look after her child. She told the doctor that she was using smartphones for several hours, including over two hours at night, with lights in the room switched off.
Rather than prescribing medicines, the doctor counselled Majnu and suggested she minimise use of smartphones.
“Manju was anxious as she feared something sinister with her brain nerves, but was finally determined to take corrective action. She said ‘instead of minimising, I will stop looking at smartphone screen, unless absolutely necessary. In any case, my phone use is recreational’,” the doctor informed.
The corrective action worked and, after a month, Manju’s vision was restored including momentary loss of vision at night.
Not looking at the screen was the best remedy.
In case using mobile phone or computer was unavoidable, Dr Sudhir suggested that the user take a 20-second break after every 20-minute use of digital devices.
“Take 20-second break, every 20 min, to look at something 20 feet away, while using a digital screen (20-20-20 rule),” he advised.
A common habit resulted in severe #vision impairment in a young woman
1. 30-year old Manju had severe disabling vision symptoms for one and half years. This included seeing floaters, bright flashes of light, dark zig zag lines and at times inability to see or focus on objects.
— Dr Sudhir Kumar MD DM🇮🇳 (@hyderabaddoctor) February 6, 2023
