Frequent rubbing of the eyes does not cause the cornea to thin, but it increases the chance of infection

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According to media reports, a 13-year-old boy likes to rub his eyes with his hands on weekdays, and one day he suddenly felt eye pain, went to the hospital to check and found that he suffered from an eye disease called keratoconus. Today, the boy has regained his light through corneal transplantation. Is this really caused by rubbing your eyes regularly?

Ai Likun, chief physician of strabismus and pediatric ophthalmology of Beijing Tongren Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, introduced that the keratoconus is a disease of corneal thinning, which is mainly manifested as the thinning of the cornea in the center of the cornea or in a certain direction, which occurs more frequently in adolescent men, especially those with astigmatism. "There is no special reason for the occurrence of keratoconus, and rubbing your eyes often does not cause keratoconus." Ai Likun stressed.

"The main symptom of the keratoconus is that the vision is obviously reduced and cannot be improved by refractive correction, that is, it cannot be corrected by wearing glasses, and some people are accompanied by transient pain." Ai Likun said that some mild or initial keratoconus can delay the progression of the disease through non-surgical means, such as wearing a hard corneal contact lens, that is, an RGP lens. In severe cases, the center of the cornea is thinner and thinner, corneal perforation may occur, and corneal transplantation is required if the cornea is close to damage or corneal perforation has already occurred. "Suddenly there is a significant loss of vision, refractive correction can not obtain normal vision, you need to go to the ophthalmology department in time to rule out related diseases." Elikun reminds.

Ai Likun said that if there is no special disease, rubbing the eyes itself will not cause serious damage to the eyes. However, it increases the chance of infection, which is often less severe and most can be controlled with medication.

"It should be noted that there must be a reason for rubbing the eyes, such as dry and itchy eyes, and different symptoms may correspond to different diseases." If you are mildly unwell, you can see if the symptoms can get better by ordering artificial tears. "Ai Likun reminded that no matter what causes eye discomfort, such as allergies, infections or dry eye disease, rubbing the eyes is certainly not the right way to deal with it, not only will bring in more bacteria or viruses, but also aggravate the disease." If you feel that the symptoms have a tendency to gradually worsen, you should seek medical attention in time, and the doctor will prescribe different drugs to control the patient's symptoms or infection according to different causes. Ai Likun stressed.

Beijing News reporter Liu Xu

Proofreading Liu Jun