Surgery helps 4-year-old see through his right eye

CHENNAI: Doctors at Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital successfully performed eye surgery on a four-year-old boy from Krishnagiri district. He had been diagnosed with congenital eye muscle problem.
According to the doctors, S Karthick was diagnosed with congenital ptosis, a condition of drooping eyelid, and also Monocular Elevation Deficiency (MED), a condition of downward squint in the right eye. This interfered with his vision.

From birth, he couldn’t open his right eye. His parents consulted various hospitals before approaching Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital. “Most doctors and several well-meaning people said it’ll be corrected as the child grows up,” said S Meenakshi, mother of Karthick.

Speaking to reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Manjula Jayakumar, paediatric ophthalmologist, who performed the procedure said, children who have congenital ptosis will also have MED. “But the prevalence of such a condition is 0.5% of all squint cases,” added Dr Manjula.

Conventionally, the downward squint will be corrected in two sittings and in the third sitting the drooping of the eyelid will be corrected. “But in this case, downward squint was corrected in single sitting and after a gap of three to four weeks, the drooping eyelid was corrected,” she explained.

The first procedure was performed on August 15 and the second procedure on September 10 and the child was discharged. “Now my son can see clearly with his right eye,” smiled Meenakshi.
Dr Ashvin Agarwal, executive director of the hospital, said this surgical procedure is being reviewed by the Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.