Heterophoria mangement Flashcards
which 2 types of patients with heterophoria are appropriate to treat
- Symptomatic patients
- Asymptomatic and decompensating (under 8 yrs old)
why must you immediately treat an asymptomatic and descompensating heterophoria patient under the age of 8
they can end up with a constant tropia and can develop amblyopia and suppression
if they develop suppression, they won’t have any stereo vision and will struggle with driving, writing etc
what 4 things does a complete full investigation consist of prior to deciding to treat a patient with symptomatic heterophoria
- Diagnosis understood
- Full BV work up
- Fundus exam
- Post refraction (cyclo for children)
why must a full BV work up be investigated before treating someone with a heterophoria
if your going to manage with prisms, then you must be sure of the diagnosis and that your not making something worse underneath
which 3 things can help determine if someones symptoms are truly related to a phoria
- From the history
Convergence weakness XOP symptoms >near - Diagnostic occlusion
Do symptoms stop after monocular occlusion?
suggests heterophoria is decompensating - Diagnostic prisms
Do symptoms stop after corrected
suggests heterophoria is decompensating
list 6 clinical signs and symptoms that can indicate decompensation
- Increase in symptoms
- Increase in size of phoria
speed of recovery reducing - Reduced fusional reserves
- Reduced binocular controlled acuity
- Reduced convergence
- Reduced stereo-acuity
what are the 2 types of conservative treatment methods of a decompensating heterophoria
- optical
- orthoptic exercises
what are the 2 types of optical treatment methods to treat a decompensating heterophoria
- Manipulation of Rx
- Prisms
Fresnel
incorporated
how will you manipulate an Rx for someone in order to reduce an esophoria and an exophoria and what does this Rx actually manipulate
Esophoria = +ve/convex lenses
Exophoria = -ve/concave lenses
manipulates accommodative convergence
what is the advantage of a fresnel prism
it is cheaper than having prisms incorporated and you can use them if you know the problem will get better before buying expensive incorporated lenses
so is good as a temporary measure
what is the non conservative treatment method of a decompensating heterophoria
surgery
done as a last resort
name 3 reasons that prisms are used for
- For diplopia
Give minimum horizontal correction
Often need full vertical correction - To alleviate symptoms
- Prevent decompensation
how much prism should you give for horizontal diplopia
the minimal horizontal correction
how much prism should you give for vertical diplopia
often full vertical correction
what should you try first before prescribing prisms
try exercises if possible
what are prisms only good for
they are a crutch
so just stops the symptoms but does not resolve the problem of a decompensating phoria
which type of prisms can be used for a critical period/recent onset nerve palsy
fresnel temporary prisms
what can prisms be used with if the deviation is too large
with the exercises
how should the prism be used if correcting the symptoms of a heterophoria
prism base always OPPOSITE TO DEVIATION.
why must you give minimal possible prism for horizontal phorias
due to prism adaptation
as you get older, the teamwork of both eyes gets worse and if prisms are given at a young age, then you need to keep giving stronger prism powers as the patient gets older
what are the 2 risks of prism usage
- prism adaptation
- aetiology unknown could mask ocular or systemic pathology
list 4 reasons when you will decide to give long term use of prisms
- Elderly or poor general health
- Small symptom producing vertical deviation (as we have a tiny amount of fusional reserves)
- Refusal or unfit for surgery and exercises don’t work
- Failed to respond to other forms of treatment
list 6 types of patients who will make a good selection for orthophoric exercises
- Good potential for BSV
- V-A quite good in either eye
- Motivated
- Understands exercises i.e. can’t give to a 3/5 yr old child
- Sufficient time
- Good GH
list the steps of how you will use a prim bar as an exercise to control a deviation e.g. RSOT to a phoria
- Fuse images with prism (lend prism bar or Fresnel’s)
- example RSOT
- first correct with base out prism
- Once corrected reduce prism strength while patient maintains BSV (nil diplopia), ask if they can still hold the image as one
- Now use exercising prism base in (for ESOT) = same direction as deviation
and if the RSOT is due to convergence excess (i.e. at near the ESOT is getting worse)
- Find the point of intersection (where they hold eyes straight) of visual axes by changing distance you hold fixation object
- Now increase or decrease distance your holding the target at while asking them to maintain BSV (nil diplopia)
i.e. to make the eyes straight, pull the target back until the eyes are straight and then bring the target closer and see if the px can hold their eyes straight
how can exercises to control a deviation to a phoria be used by manipulating accommodation
by:
- Stimulating exophorias (Then reducing)
- Relaxing it in esophorias (Then reducing)
in order to relax accommodation, ask the patient to make the target more blurry and therefore relax the eyes = eyes should start to turn out and if they can do that, then ask them to make the target clearer again
what will an improvement of relative convergence/change in accommodation result in
a pre-determined change in accommodative convergence
if accommodation is constant, what will happen to relative convergence as a result
relative convergence can be exerted or relaxed whilst maintaining static accommodation
for every dioptre of accommodation how many dioptres of accommodative convergence will occur
5 dioptres of accommodative convergence occurs
AC/A = 5:1
what occurs in +ve relative convergence
Convergence is exerted in excess of accommodation
i.e. going to converge more than what we can accommodate
Relative convergence controls deviation whilst static accommodation keeps vision clear
you look infront of the target in order to see it clearly