Page 12 - NAME OF CONDITION: REFRACTIVE ERRORS

Standard Operating procedure

a. Inpatient
Not applicable
b. Out Patient: All patients are treated as outpatients.
c. Day care
Not applicable

d) Referral criteria:

The following patients can be referred to a higher centre for the following reasons:
- Pathological Myopia
- Refractive Error with associated Strabismus

- Visual Acuity not improving with glasses
- Oblique Astigmatism
- Sudden refractive change
- Amblyopia
Those patients who desire contact lenses and refractive surgeries

*Situation 2: At Super Specialty Facility in Metro location where higher-

end technology is available
a) Clinical Diagnosis:

Apart from the regular history and examinations, measured above, special emphasis
on evaluating the visual expectations should be performed on patients seeking
refractive surgery.
b) Investigations:

While regular patients seeking spectacle correction go through the same investigations
mentioned above, patients with special needs such as contact lenses and laser
refractive surgeries have to undergo special procedures. The refraction may be done
objectively by retinoscopy, with an autorefractor, or with a wavefront analyzer; or it

may be done subjectively. In cooperative patients, subjective refinement of refraction
using a phorometer or trial lens set is preferred
c) Treatment:

Contact Lenses:
An attractive alternative to spectacles for correcting refractive errors, contact lenses are
also used for various therapeutic, pharmacological and cosmetic procedures. Modern
contact lenses are polymers which are relatively safe, non-toxic and non-allergic. Since the
cornea derives its oxygen supply mainly from the atmosphere, placing a lens on its surface
can compromise its intake starving the cornea of oxygen. Newer lenses however, allow
oxygen to pass through them to the cornea.
There are basically three types of contact lenses:

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