Jointly launched by the People's Liberation Army General Hospital
What's going on? After skiing, my eyes hurt severely
The Year of the Dragon has arrived. The streets and alleys are filled with a strong smell of the New Year.
This year, with the ice and snow tour out of the circle.
Have fun in the snow and ski.
It is the No. chosen by many people on vacation1
Especially the first heavy snow of 2024.
Go live gradually. Heavy snow is falling in many places across the country, and it is covered in silver.
It's so beautiful that you want to rush out immediately to have a good time.
But while enjoying the beautiful snow scenery to the fullest.
It is also necessary to pay attention to the prevention of snow and ice tourism that may be encountered.
A common eye disease – snow blindness.
Snow blindness is probably for most people.
Relatively unfamiliar. Recently, however, there have been cases of trouble caused by playing in the snow.
But there are not a few.
Strengthening prevention is essential.
Today. The Third Medical Center of the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army.
Deputy Director of the Department of Ophthalmology.
Professor Tao Hai
Help you answer your questions about snow blindness
What is snow blindness?
Snow blindness, also known as solar ophthalmia, is an eye disease caused by the reflection of ultraviolet rays from the sun on a large area of snow, and the outer layer of the black eyeball (cornea) of the eye is burned by ultraviolet radiation for a long time.
Typical presentations include:: Eyelid (commonly known as eyelids) edema, photophobia, inability to open eyes, tearing, blurred vision, severe pain in both eyes, most of the eye pain occurs at night, and the pain is unbearable.
Visible on doctor's examination: The surface layer of the cornea is edematous, the epithelium is punctate and detached, and the conjunctiva is obviously hyperemic and edematous.
Can snow blindness cause vision loss and even eye diseases?
Snow blindness usually begins about 6-8 hours after the corneal epithelium burns, so there are no symptoms at first, and by the time symptoms appear, the cornea has already been damaged.
What should I do if I have snow blindness?
If snow blindness is already present, the patient can be moved to a dark place or blindfolded with an eye patch, and a cold compress can be applied with a damp towel instead of rubbing the eyes with hands. It can be prescribed with drugs that promote corneal epithelial repair**, such as: recombinant human epidermal growth factor eye drops, calf serum protein-free ophthalmic gel, etc. If the pain is severe, 4-6 drops of bee dima eye drops can be applied. In addition, resting with your eyes closed and using your eyes less will help you recover.
After the above**, it can generally be cured in 24-48 hours, if there is no obvious relief for more than 48 hours, or even the symptoms are aggravated, it may be a secondary infection leading to infectious keratitis, which needs to be identified and given anti-infection**.
How can snow blindness be prevented?
The first is to avoid watching snow for long periods of time or walking in the snow for long periods of time without any eye protection.
Secondly, if you plan to watch the snow for a long time or walk in the snow for a long time, wear eye protection or sunglasses. Be sure to choose sunglasses, and the outer packaging is marked with the words "100% UV protection", "UV400", "UV protection" and so on. Otherwise, wearing inferior sunglasses is easy to enlarge the pupils, and ultraviolet rays invade the eyes more than when you don't wear sunglasses, which is easy to cause damage to the eyes.
In short, snow blindness is preventable and treatable, if you suffer from snow blindness, there is no obvious relief after the above treatment, you need to see an ophthalmologist in time.
Author: Chai Xiao Zhang Xiaoning.
Editor: Chai Xiao.
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