Recently, the Department of Ophthalmology of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University received a 9-year-old child, Xiao Dong (pseudonym), who came to the doctor due to rapid loss of vision, and was found to be a lesion of the retina after examination. After being questioned by Professor Peng Hongjun of the Department of Ophthalmology, it turned out that Xiao Dong liked to play with laser pointers in the past week, and after irradiating his eyes, it was the laser that caused irreversible damage to his retinal cells. Peng Hongjun reminded that lasers can produce photoionization effects, photothermal effects and photochemical effects in the eyes, and parents should be cautious about buying laser pointers or toys with laser shooting functions and laser aiming functions for children.
According to Xiao Dong's mother, the child's vision is very good every time the school physical examination, but in the past week, the child said that the left eye can not see clearly, the school holiday before the physical examination found poor vision, but do not know what happened to the child's eyes? She recalled that Xiao Dong liked to play with laser pointers in recent weeks, often shining on his eyes. They felt that the laser pointer was not strong in light, so they didn't care.
Professor Peng Hongjun gave the child a comprehensive examination, and the mydriatic refraction examination found that Xiao Dong's corrected vision in his right eye could reach a normal 1.0, and the corrected vision of his left eye was only 0.5. Fundus examination revealed a yellowish-white lesion in the macular area of the left eye. In order to clarify the nature of macular lesions, he gave Xiao Dong a further optical coherence tomography (OCT examination) of the retina, which can accurately show the structure of each layer of the retina and the photosensitive cells, and accurately determine the lesions of the retina. Oct examination results show that the outer retina rupture of the lesion in the center of the macular area of Xiao Dong's left eye is broken, and the photoreceptor cells are damaged.
▲Normal fundus
▲Yellow-white lesions in the macula
Professor Peng Hongjun said that Xiao Dong's left eye was a typical retinal laser damage. Unfortunately, the damage of the laser has caused irreversible damage to the retinal retinal cells of Xiao Dong. At the current level of medicine, the loss of vision in the left eye is not recoverable.
How does a laser pointer cause eye damage? Professor Peng Hongjun said that lasers can produce photoionization effects, photothermal effects and photochemical effects in the eye area. The human eye is like a lens, the parallel beam of the laser passes through the eye, and the focus falls on the retina of the macular part, which is equivalent to increasing the intensity of the light after focusing by dozens of times, and when this energy density is strong enough, it can even directly burn through the retina! The macula area is located in the center of the retina, which is the most sensitive area of vision, and the cone cells responsible for vision and color vision are concentrated in this area, so any lesion involving the macula will cause a significant decrease in central vision, dark vision, deformation, etc. Laser damage to the macular retina is often permanent and irreversible, and can even lead to blindness.
In recent years, incidents of eye damage caused by laser pointers have occurred from time to time, and there have been many reports on the Internet. Professor Peng Hongjun reminded parents that they should pay attention to the following aspects to prevent accidents: be cautious about buying laser pointers or toys with laser shooting functions and laser aiming functions for children; if you need to use laser pointers, try to choose regular channels to buy laser pointers, do not buy high-power laser pointers in non-standard vendors, networks and other channels; parents with small treasures at home should pay special attention to when saving laser pointers, and put them in a place where children cannot reach. In view of the fact that there are often adults in the accidental injury of laser pointers, everyone should be careful when using laser pointers, and do not use laser pointer light sources to directly illuminate eyes, skin and clothing to avoid unnecessary injuries.
Shenzhen Evening News reporter Zhou Qian correspondent Xiao Hu Du Fangfang