Hyderabad doctor says woman lost vision due to smartphone use, post goes viral
1 min read . Updated: 09 Feb 2023, 07:19 PM IST
PremiumIn a now viral Twitter thread Dr. Sudhir Kumar of Hyderabad spoke about how a patient of his had developed vision problems due to routine behaviour patterns.
A Hyderabad-based doctor has shared on social media that a woman lost her eye due to excessive use of a smartphone. Dr. Sudhir Kumar said the woman had excessively used her smartphone in dark, resulting in the loss of her eyesight. The symptoms started to show after the Hyderabad woman quit her job and started spending hours on her smartphone.
“30-year old Manju had severe disabling vision symptoms for one and half years. This included seeing floaters, bright flashes of light, dark zig zag lines and at times inability to see or focus on objects. There were moments when she could not see anything for several seconds - mostly in the night," he began.
Majnu had visited an eye specialist to no avail before being referred to him in order to rule out neurological causes.
“Symptoms had started after she quit her job of a beautician in order to take care of her specially abled child. She picked up a new habit of browsing through her smartphone for several hours daily, including >2 hours at nights with lights switched off," he said.
Kumar said that the diagnosis was fairly ‘obvious’ to him after gathering this information - she was suffering from ‘smartphone vision syndrome’.
“I did not order any investigations nor did I prescribe any medicines (even though Manju requested, as she was anxious). I counseled her about the possible cause for her vision impairment and suggested the minimize the use of smartphone," the doctor wrote.
Taking his advice to heart, the patient had decided to 'stop looking at the smartphone screen unless absolutely necessary'. Within a month, her eyesight was back to normal.
“At 1-month review, Manju was absolutely fine. Her vision impairment of 18 months had gone. Now, she had normal eyesight, did not see any floaters or flashes of light. Moreover, her momentary loss of vision at nights also stopped," Kumar wrote.
The doctor urged people to avoid looking at screens of digital devices for long as this could cause severe and disabling vision-related problems.
“Take 20-second break, every 20 min, to look at something 20 feet away, while using a digital screen (20-20-20 rule)" he urged.
