Buphthalmos
Buftalmos, also known as bull's eye, is a condition that only affects children or newborns suffering from congenital glaucoma. He glaucoma It is a disease that causes damage to the optic nerve and permanently affects vision. In newborns, glaucoma can be caused by a defect in the drainage angle of the aqueous humor, which generates high levels of eye pressure.
Buftalmos can be recognized with the naked eye, since it is the enlarged eyeball. To treat buftalmos, it is necessary to control glaucoma and ensure that the child has stable intraocular pressure to prevent damage to the optic nerve.
Buphthalmos
Buftalmos, also known as bull's eye, is a condition that only affects children or newborns suffering from congenital glaucoma. He glaucoma It is a disease that causes damage to the optic nerve and permanently affects vision. In newborns, glaucoma can be caused by a defect in the drainage angle of the aqueous humor, which generates high levels of eye pressure.
Buftalmos can be recognized with the naked eye, since it is the enlarged eyeball. To treat buftalmos, it is necessary to control glaucoma and ensure that the child has stable intraocular pressure to prevent damage to the optic nerve.
What is buphthalmos?
Buftalmos is one of the main consequences of congenital glaucoma characterized by the growth of the eyeball. Congenital glaucoma is the least common type of glaucoma and is usually caused by a defect in the development of the eye structure.
When a child has congenital glaucoma, they have a failure of the aqueous humor drainage system, the fluid found inside the eye. The fault may be in the drainage canals or in the iridocorneal angle. When this happens, the aqueous humor cannot flow properly and, consequently, the level of intraocular pressure rises.
Elevated intraocular pressure is very dangerous as it affects the optic nerve and can cause irreversible vision loss. But in congenital glaucoma, intraocular pressure does not affect only the optic nerve, but also affects the entire eye, causing inflammation of the eyeball known as buftalmos.
The reason is that the intraocular pressure produces the distension of the walls of the eye since these are more sensitive in childhood because they are under development.
Who is affected?
Buphthalmos is a condition that affects only the patients with congenital glaucoma. This type of glaucoma is rare and can occur in newborns and children up to 3 years of age. Late congenital glaucoma affects children over 3 years of age or young.
Congenital glaucoma can be caused by genetic factor, especially if both parents have the recessive gene. However, this disease is very rare, about 1 in 30 thousand newborns.
Symptoms of congenital glaucoma
congenital glaucoma can cause various signs in the eye structure, let's see:
- Buphthalmos or regrowth of the eyeball.
- Corneal edema or inflammation of the cornea. .
- Excessive tearing.
- Light sensitivity or photophobia.
- Blepharospasm or repetitive and involuntary contraction of the muscle that surrounds the eye.
- Excavation of the optic nerve.
Diagnosis
Early diagnosis of congenital glaucoma is key to prevent deterioration of the optic nerve and preserve the child's vision. The diagnosis of buftalmos is very simple, since it is enough to look at the patient's eyes to detect that there is an alteration in their size.
To verify that the regrowth of the eyeball is caused by congenital glaucoma it is important to examine both eyes exhaustively. This examination should be carried out by a pediatric ophthalmologist and it may be necessary to sedate the child in order to perform the relevant tests, such as tonometry, OCT or gonioscopy.
Treatment of Buphthalmos
Buftalmos is a reversible alteration that is corrected by treating congenital glaucoma. Treatment of this type of glaucoma it is purely surgical and consists of looking for an alternative drainage for the aqueous humor. In general, the procedure to be performed is a goniotomy, a surgery that aims to free the iridocorneal angle from the embryonic tissue that invades it.
Although it is not usual, sometimes it may be necessary to perform a trabeculectomy. Trabeculectomy is considered a treatment option for congenital glaucoma when corneal edema prevents the surgeon from accessing the iridocorneal angle to perform a goniotomy.
Trabeculectomy consists of creating an incision in the sclera to form a kind of flap in the conjunctiva where, through a filtration bubble, allows filtering of the aqueous humor concentrated in the anterior chamber. The success of this surgery depends, in large part, on the filter bubble not developing scar tissue. In very severe cases, internal valves can be placed to drain the aqueous humor.
As we have seen, there are various techniques for operating congenital glaucoma and all of them have as their main objective balance intraocular pressure to prevent negative consequences such as buphthalmos and damage to the nerve fibers of the eye.
Sometimes, the patient with congenital glaucoma may need to undergo surgery more than once. In any case, if we have detected the disease early, the child's prognosis is very positive and the results of the surgery are usually excellent.
