The eye is the visual organ of visual perception, including the eye and its accessories. Although the eye occupies a small surface area and volume of the body, its function is particularly important in daily life and labor. The eye is a part of the body, and many systemic diseases can have certain manifestations around the eyes. To ‘capture’ the information of light, the eye must be exposed to the surface, which increases its chance of injury and external pathogen invasion. Eye diseases ultimately affect visual function. Vision loss not only causes pain to the patient but also brings tragedy to the family and society, so the research on ophthalmology has positive significance.

The eye is a spherical organ, divided into the wall of the eye and the contents of the eye.

The wall of the eye is divided into the superficial layer, middle layer, and inner layer.

The contents of the eye include the lens, aqueous humor, and vitreous body.

The accessories of the eye include the eye socket, upper eyelid, conjunctiva, lacrimal glands, and extraocular muscles.

Common health problems around the eyes and their causes

In the information age, our eye fatigue time has multiplied several times compared to the past few decades, and we rely more and more on computers, televisions, and other video display devices for various activities. In recent years, the number of people suffering from eye fatigue in our country has increased geometrically, and according to relevant statistics, there are as many as 150 million people at present. However, our awareness of vision health care has not kept pace.

1. Eye fatigue. It is a common disease in ophthalmology, a group of eye vision fatigue symptoms caused by various reasons. Its clinical symptoms are various, mostly appearing after a period of close-up work or shortly after using the eyes, with transient visual function decline or a series of discomfort around the eyes. Mild cases are mainly manifested as eye swelling, dryness, photophobia, heat, redness, a tingling pain around the eye sockets, or pain in the bridge of the nose and forehead, or blurred vision becoming increasingly unclear. Severe cases may include eye pain, severe headache or migraine, sweating, pale complexion, slow heartbeat, or a feeling of tightness in the chest, and some may mainly manifest as difficulty concentrating during work, lack of energy, fear of reading, insomnia, and decreased memory. If not treated promptly, it can lead to a decline in vision, and ultimately cause myopia, excessive psychological anxiety, poor attention to three-dimensional concentration, and neurasthenia. The main causes are four: overuse of the eyes, poor eye care, diseases, and accommodative eye fatigue.

2. Myopia. Myopia is the most common refractive error. It is the condition where, without adjustment, parallel light rays are refracted by the refractive system and converge in front of the macula, and cannot form a clear virtual image on the macula. With the process of civilization in modern society, myopia has become one of the most prevalent eye diseases in the world, and WHO has included it in the list of urgent preventable eye diseases. Among the population with myopia, adolescents and children are more prone to the disease. According to research data from the Chinese Ministry of Health, there are currently about 430 million myopia patients in China, accounting for 33.6% of the population, and showing a trend of ‘the total number is increasing and the age of onset is decreasing’. The causes are mainly three: genetic inheritance, eye fatigue, and nutrition.

3. Cataracts. It is the leading cause of blindness in third-world countries, accounting for 25% to 50% of blindness caused by eye diseases. According to WHO statistics, there are currently 15 million cataract blind patients in the world, and in China, there are about 4 to 5 million cataract patients. Cataracts refer to the opacity of the lens caused by various reasons. The most common symptom is blurred vision, photophobia, dark or yellowish color of objects, even diplopia (double vision) and deformation of objects. Cataracts can be divided into congenital, traumatic, hypermetropic, and senile types. The causes are various, and in addition to trauma, hyperacidity, congenital, and hypermetropic, there may be various factors in the process of occurrence, which are very complex. The most common mechanism of senile cataracts may be related to aging, long-term excessive direct sunlight, genetic factors, and malnutrition.

4. Eye diseases. Currently, eye diseases have accounted for the second place in the blindness rate of eye diseases and have irreversible characteristics, making it a major concern and challenge in the prevention of ophthalmic diseases. The eye refers to the visible inner surface of the eye, which mainly includes the macula, macular area, optic disc, macular artery, and macular vein. The health of the eye is closely related to the quality of vision. Common eye diseases include age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DRP). The former may be related to chronic light damage, genetic inheritance, metabolism, and nutrition, while the latter is mainly caused by increased blood sugar levels, thickening of blood vessel walls, increased permeability, making the small blood vessels in the eye more prone to deformation, leakage, and lack of elasticity.

5. Glaucoma. Glaucoma ranks third in the blindness rate of eye diseases, and it is a group of diseases characterized by optic nerve atrophy and field defects. According to three key factors: the shape of the anterior chamber angle, the etiology of the disease, and the age of onset, glaucoma can be divided into primary, secondary, and congenital types. The occurrence of glaucoma is related to the level of intraocular pressure and the tolerance of the eye nerves to stress. In addition, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and myopia are also common risk factors for glaucoma.