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Eye Conditions

Worldwide, there are around 160 million people who are visually impaired and have some degree of low vision. Low vision is often characterized by partial sight, such as blurred vision, distorted vision, shadows, blind spots or tunnel vision, but the term also includes legal blindness. If you are affected by an eye condition such as Diabetic Retinopathy, Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration or Retinitis Pigmentosa, you can still live independently if you are supported by low vision aids.

LHON

Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) is a genetic eye disease which leads to a sudden loss of central vision. While the condition usually emerges in a person's teens or twenties, rare cases may appear in early childhood or later adulthood. For unknown reasons men are more affected than women.

Keratoconus

Keratoconus is a progressive eye condition in which the cornea of the eye thins and begins to bulge into a cone-like shape. The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil and anterior chamber. Together with the eye’s lens, the cornea reflects light. The cornea is responsible for approximately two-thirds of the eye’s total optical power.

Graves' Disease

Graves disease Graves’ disease is an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is overactive, producing high levels of thyroid hormones. These high levels of thyroid hormones are referred to as hyperthyroidism. In a small percentage of people with Graves’ Disease, the fat and muscle behind the eyes are also affected, causing various symptoms.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes reading, writing, spelling and sometimes speaking difficult. It is caused by an impairment of the brain’s ability to translate images received from the eyes or sounds received from the ears into understandable language. Dyslexia is not an intellectual disability, since dyslexia and IQ are not interrelated.

Color Blindness

Color blindness is the inability to distinguish the differences between certain colors. Color blindness results from an absence of color-sensitive pigment in the cone cells of the retina, the nerve layer at the back of the eye.

Albinism

Albinism refers to a group of conditions in which people have little or no pigment in their eyes, skin or hair. Albinism occurs due to inherited altered genes which do not make the usual amounts of pigment called ‘melanin’. Based on the amount of melanin in the eyes, different types of albinism can be distinguished. What the different types have in common is that they are all associated with vision problems.

Refractive Errors

Myopia Refractive errors are errors in which the eye’s ability to focus light is affected, causing reduced visual capacity. This is the most common and well-known eye condition including various types.

Usher Syndrome

Usher Syndrome is the most common condition affecting both vision and hearing. It is a rare genetic disorder that is the main cause of deaf-blindness. The major symptoms of Usher Syndrome are loss of hearing and an eye condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa.

Stargardts

Stargardt’s Disease is an inherited eye disorder that causes loss of central vision at a young age. It affects the macula, the area of the eye responsible for central vision and seeing colour and fine details. The symptoms are very similar to Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Stargardt’s Disease causes progressive vision loss and, in some cases, near blindness.