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What Is Aphakia?

Aphakia occurs when a person does not have a lens in one or both eyes. It can be congenital when people are born with it or acquire it at any stage of life after surgery or injury.

The lens is a transparent structure located behind the iris, which is necessary to focus on objects. Light enters the eye through the pupil, reaching the iris that controls the amount of light entering the eye. Then you reach the lens that you will focus on the retina. When the lens is absent, a person will have problems focusing and seeing objects clearly.


Symptoms of Aphakia

When a person does not have a lens, they may experience the following:

  • Blurred vision
  • Farsightedness (hyperopia)
  • It’s hard to focus things
  • Reduce focus when distance from an object changes
  • Colors appear faded
  • What do you know about suddenly blurry vision

Causes

  • Aphakia can be caused by injuries, cataracts, or genetics. Although rare, some babies can be born without lenses.

genetics

The lens begins to develop in the third week of pregnancy. However, in some cases, they may not form or the lenses may be absorbed by the body shortly after birth. Loss of congenital ability is a rare anomaly that can be associated with other visual disturbances. It can be divided into two forms: primary and secondary congenital birth inability: 1

Lack of primary lens:

Babies are born without a lens due to a mutation or problems during development. It can be associated with micro-eye, absence of the iris, aplastic of the anterior part, sclerosis of the cornea (when the cornea mixes with the sclera).


Secondary inability:

This type occurs when the lens is absorbed by the body before birth. Some of these conditions are associated with congenital rubella syndrome (caused by infection with the mother with the rubella virus during pregnancy).
Injury
Patients can also get a lens injury after an injury or rupture of the globe. They may lose their lenses during a severe injury, and this type of incapacity is known as incapability to trauma.

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Cataract surgery

  • Cataracts are the blurring of your eye’s lens. When cataracts are absent above the lens, your eye cannot focus light in the same way, resulting in blurred vision or loss of vision. Sometimes people need cataract surgery to see and treat other eye conditions, such as age-related changes in the retina or diabetic retinopathy. During the procedure, the lens is removed and replaced with an artificial implant in most cases.
  • Although common in older adults, some babies can be born with congenital cataracts and will need surgery before the first month.
  • Cataract surgery: what to expect during surgery

diagnosis

  • In adults and older children, inability to breathe is diagnosed during a comprehensive eye examination. However, diagnosing congenital axenophobia is often challenging. Prenatal ultrasound diagnosis of Lavakia is difficult and often requires a genetic study of the karyotype (set of chromosomes in a person).
  • Reasons Why Your Healthcare Provider May Order Karyotype

Treatment

Surgery is the most effective way to treat inability to breathe in children and adults. Your healthcare provider will insert an intraocular (IOL) artificial lens made of silicone, acrylic, or any other plastic formula. They are also covered with a special material to help protect your eyes from the sun’s UV rays.

Surgery for adults and infants may be different:

Surgery in adults:

When the cause of lens loss is cataracts or eye injury, the practitioner removes the damaged lens in surgery. The patient needs local anesthesia and the surgery takes about an hour. If both eyes are damaged, surgery is performed in one eye at a time.

Surgery in children:

  • When babies with cataracts are born, your healthcare provider often recommends surgery before the first month of life. The lens may not be replaced immediately, and the insertion of an artificial IOL lens is performed after the first year of life. Children who have had congenital cataract surgery need to schedule frequent eye exams during the first decade of life. After that, eye examinations should be performed every one to two years throughout life.
  • Treatment of loss of adhesion in children requires close attention. During the first years of life, the eye still grows. Glasses or contact lenses should fit quickly, until the visual path to the brain begins to form. An immature visual system in young children puts them at risk of amblyopia if the visual input is unfocused or uneven between the eyes.
  • Glasses can cause image distortion, prismatic effects, asymmetry and anciconia, resulting in less than ideal vision. These effects are eliminated with contact lenses, so contact lenses are preferred in the treatment of inability to breathe in children.

Complications

It is uncommon, but patients may develop the following after surgery:

Aphakic glaucoma: Aphakia causes complex mechanical and biochemical changes in the vitreous (the clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina) and the structures of the anterior part, and the exact mechanism of glaucoma in the inability to breathe is not fully understood. They develop lactic glaucoma, a secondary type of condition that is more difficult to treat than primary glaucoma. People can also develop glaucoma after cataract surgery, even years after the operation. It occurs due to changes in intraocular pressure, which leads to damage to the optic nerve.

Retinal detachment:

After cataract surgery, retinal detachment occurs in up to 3.6% of patients, and the risk increases in young patients with myopia. It occurs when the retina detaches, causing eye floaters and the sensation of a curtain-like shadow over the eye.
Vitreous detachment: The vitreous is attached to the retina. Cataract surgery can lead to significant changes in the vitreous, including its separation from the retina.
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References


The prognosis is highly favorable if the inability is fixed with surgery, especially when it occurs due to cataracts. Most people with intraocular lenses often have no problems and do not need to change their lenses during their lifetime. However, it will also depend on the eye health of the individual. Therefore, frequent eye examinations are necessary.

A word from Ibsar Specialized Center

Most cases of aphasia are treated with surgery. However, patients should be aware that they will need regular eye exams to ensure that there are no other problems. When a child suffers from a loss of congenital ability, parents play a crucial role in treatment and vision development. They should be aware that successful treatment depends not only on surgery but also on regular eye examinations and the correct use of glasses and contact lenses.