Dr. Karuna Shejwal

A pilot cross sectional study was performed to identify causes of blindness (BL) in blind school children with an aim to gather information on preventable and treatable causes of visual impairement. An informed consent from parents were obtained. Relevant ocular history and basic ocular examinations were carried. A total of 70 students were examined. The main causes of severe visual impairment and BL in the better eye of students were microphthalmos (37.14%), corneal scar (4.28%), anophthalmos (14.28%), optic nerveatrophy (7.14%), buphthalmos/glaucoma (2.85%), staphyloma (4.28%), cataract (5.71%), retinal dystrophy (2.85 %), coloboma (7.14%), etc. It was found that corneal scar, glaucoma and cataract were the prominent causes of BL among the students of blind school. Almost 38% of the students had preventable or treatable causes, indicating the need of genetical counseling and focused intervention.

The aim was to study whether the anti- miasmatic remedies were effective in cases of children suffering from blindness and to identify the miasm in these children. Material and methods: 30 cases were selected by experimental, non-randomized uncontrolled trial.Visual acuity before the treatment was assessed in each eye with the help of Snellen’s chart. After a detail case taking totality has been generated and homoeopathic medicine has been given, and patient was observed every month. Visual acuity on Snellen’s chart before and after the treatment was recorded. As there was no proper scale assessed due to various clinical presentation in these cases, so we had done a proper grading of vision as per the improvement in patient by using Snellen’s E chart and the students who did not cooperate with the ‘E’ chart, were assessed for the ability to fix and follow light, and those who were not responding to light were assessed by hand motion movement, finger counting and recognition of colours. After the values which were obtained from this grading of vision, the study was analysed with paired T test. Result: The study also revealed that the miasmatic background of the patient mostly indicate Psora. From the 30 cases, most frequently used medicine was Sulphur in 6 cases.Out of the 30 cases, 13 patients are responding to Torch light examination, 01 patient is responding to hand motion examination, 11 patients are responding to finger counting examination, 06 patients are respondingto colours & 03 patients are responding to Snellen’s chart & 3 patients show improvement in Snellen’s chart. Conclusion: It was found that Anti- miasmatic remedies are effective in cases of children suffering from blindness.