Published Paper Details:

COVID 19 pandemic has affected general health of people including eye health. As life has changed greatly post lockdown, it has also affected eye health. It will be interesting to observe symptomatology of eye patients post lock down. Present study is on observation of symptoms in eye patients post lock down period. Subjects with symptomatology associated with increased near work and use of visual display terminals during COVID lockdown period were included. A vision quality scale questionnaire (VQS) was used to evaluate the significance of symptoms. Detailed history was taken. Refractive correction, anterior segment evaluation, Non-strabismic binocular vision evaluation, cycloplegic retinoscopy and fundus examination were done. Twenty-five subjects with an average VQS score of 43.26% were observed with common symptoms of asthenopia, intermittent blur and diplopia. All the subjects were in range of 8-39 years including 9 male and 16 female patients. In common, all of them had near work history including visual display terminal use approx 10-12 hours/day. An integrative analysis approach was used for the diagnosis of binocular vision anomalies. Out of 25 subjects; 8% subjects were diagnosed with convergence insufficiency, 4% with pseudoconvergence insufficiency, 20% with exophoria, 20% with accommodative spasm, and 48% with intermittent exotropia. As work from home, online study/teaching etc became mandatory in covid times, screen time of young subjects increased. More severe symptoms associated with excessive near work due to binocular vision anomalies were seen, clearly indicating changing symptomatology. Complete binocular vision evaluation and integrative analysis approach for diagnosis is mandatory for all symptomatic cases. comprehensive eye examination and counseling for visual hygiene in all cases.