Hyderabad: Woman loses eyesight due to smartphone vision syndrome
With our increasing obsession with smartphones and technology, be it for work or entertainment, a new health problem called the smartphone vision syndrome (SVS) has cropped up and has already started affecting people. Recently, a 30-year-old woman from Hyderabad experienced vision loss for around one and a half years after spending endless nights scrolling through social media posts on her smartphone in the dark.
Neurologist Dr. Kumar explained the symptoms on Twitter
Dr. Sudhir Kumar, who is a Neurologist from Hyderabad revealed how the woman caught the syndrome and what were her symptoms on Twitter. "30-year-old Manju had severe disabling vision symptoms for one and half years," he wrote. "This included seeing floaters, bright flashes of light, dark zig-zag lines and at times inability to see or focus on objects," the doctor explained on Twitter.
The woman couldn't see anything mostly at night: Dr. Kumar
"There were moments when she could not see anything for several seconds - mostly in the night when she got up to use the washroom," he added. "She was evaluated by an eye specialist and a detailed evaluation was found to be normal. She was referred to rule out neurological causes," his tweet read. Dr. Kumar reviewed her history and conducted medical examinations.
Symptoms started after she quit her job as a beautician
"I reviewed the history. Symptoms had started after she quit her job as a beautician to take care of her specially-abled child," Dr. Kumar wrote. "She picked up a new habit of browsing through her smartphone for several hours daily, including more than two hours at night with lights switched off," he added. After the diagnosis, the woman was detected with smartphone vision syndrome.
Dr. Kumar suggested minimizing the use of smartphones as treatment
"I did not order any investigations nor did I prescribe any medicines (even though Manju requested, as she was anxious)," the doctor wrote. "I counseled her about the possible cause for her vision impairment and suggested minimizing the use of smartphones," he added. The woman followed his advice and limited her smartphone use unless absolutely necessary. She got back her eyesight within a month.
Dr. Kumar gave some pointers on how to prevent SVS
"At one-month review, Manju was absolutely fine. Her vision impairment of 18 months had gone. Now, she had normal eyesight, didn't see floaters or flashes of light. Moreover, her momentary loss of vision at night also stopped," he wrote. Dr. Kumar also urged people to take a 20-second break, every 20 min, to look at something 20 feet away, while using a digital screen.
