With the advent of disposable contact lenses, cases of Contact Lens Acute Red Eyes (C.L.A.R.E) have been greatly reduced. With the new generation of contact lens materials, known as silicone hydrogels, extended wear contact lenses have made a resurgence. The incidence of vision last as a result from contact lens wear has been greatly reduced the chances of a patient losing vision as a result of contact lens wear, thus actually making 30 day extended wear contact lenses safer than LASIK.

Here is a good video that talks about the dangers of stretching your contact lenses.

The study comparing the safety of extended wear contact lenses vs LASIK did not restrict itself to patients that complied with the wearing schedule recommended by the contact lens manufacturer and the patient’s doctor.  We find that if a patient complies with the prescribed wearing schedule then the incidence of contact lens related red eyes is very low.

Almost without exception if a patient comes in to our office with a red eye they almost always have exceeded their wearing schedule.  So the moral story, discard your lenses following the prescribed wearing schedule and enjoy safe contact lens wear.

As many of you may know Dr. Diana Driscoll is on medical disability due to the autonomic nervous system complications from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and has not seen patients in the office since August of 2004.  In the course of her research trying to find what was making her ill she accumulated considerable knowledge in Ehlers-Danlos and the complications associated with it.  Dr. Driscoll has been asked to share her knowledge at the Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation Meeting in Houston July 31st - Aug 2.

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome is a connective tissue disorder that affects multiple systems and organs.  EDS, as it is called by patients that have it, has numerous different types.  The most common types of EDS are classical and hypermobile.  Another, rarer type called the vascular form, is the most dangerous because it involves weakening of the blood vessels which may rupture (an aneurysm), which is often fatal.

The most common symptoms of EDS are hyper-flexible joints (people sometimes refer to this as “being double Jointed”) that are flexible beyond the normal range of movement, skin that is very stretchy, soft, bruises easily and is sometimes fragile (tears easily).  EDS patients often complain of joint pain that may be mistaken for arthritis, yet the x-rays are not consistent with arthritis.

The most debilitating complication of EDS is a type of dysautonomia called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome or POTS.  Dysautonomia is the result of our autonomic nervous system ceasing to function properly.  Our autonomic nervous system regulates functions that our body does automatically such as digestion, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure etc.  It is estimated that 40 to 70% of EDS patients suffer from POTS.  Many patients with POTS don’t know that they have EDS and are often missed diagnosed with fibromyalgia or chronic fatique syndrome.  It is thought that autonomic dysfunction is caused by instability of the cervical spine thus interfering with the brain stem.

The medical literature reports that the incidence of EDS is approximately 1 in 10-14,000, however doctors report seeing it clinically more frequently.  It is hypothesized that once doctors are made more aware of how to diagnose EDS that the reported incidence will be more like 1 in 3-5000 people.

Once doctors become more aware of how to identify patients with EDS I believe that the incidence reported in the general public will rise markedly.  I have personally identified numerous patients in our practice that have EDS and concur with the incidence of 1 in 3-5000.  I, in fact, would not be surprised if it was indeed more common than 1 in 3000.

Registration for the Ehlers-Danlos National Foundation 2008 Meeting is available at the EDNF website.

A: No, using computers or any kind of near work will not cause your eyes to go bad. What computer use will do, however, is make any uncorrected visual problems become more apparent. When we work at a computer we typically don’t change our point of gaze for possibly hours.  Before computers were such an integral part of the office workplace we would experience intermittent visual breaks in our focus that gave our eyes a break by turning the page, going to the file cabinet or grabbing another document, etc. With computers everything we need is on the screen. When we finish one task the next is available on the computer. Our gaze rarely strays from the monitor. Even when we take a mental break, we still take that break looking at our monitor checking personal email, youtube etc.

How do we prevent visual strain at the computer? The first is to set up your workstation for enhanced visual ergonomics.  Take occasional breaks from looking at the monitor, once an hour is recommended. If it has been over a year since your last eye exam often a change in glasses is all that is needed.

Each year over the holiday, Thousands of adults and children are seriously injured as a result of fireworks and pyrotechnic devices. Many burns and injuries affect eyesight, permanently damaging and in some cases blinding the victims. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 20-25% of all fireworks related injuries involve the eyes.

Believe it or not, sparklers are the highest cause of fireworks injuries for children under five requiring trips to the emergency room. Another surprising fact is that 1/2 of the fireworks related injuries are to the bystanders. Be safe and attend a professional fireworks display in your area. More information and a list of fireworks displays in the Northeast Tarrant County is available.

Dr. Richard Driscoll’s Facebook profile is now live.

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Wellness.com is a healthcare portal on the web providing information on a wide variety of healthcare topics. Dr. Driscoll’s Wellness.com profile is now live.

Dr. Driscoll’s ZoomInfo profile is now available online in addition a profile for the Colleyville Total Eye Care office. We will update both profiles with more content soon.

We are frequently asked to explain how glaucoma causes blindness. Glaucomatous damage to the eye is caused when the pressure within the eye is greater than the optic nerve can tolerate. How does the pressure cause blindess? The simple answer is we don’t know exactly, however there are two main theories as to why the damage occurs. Neither theory fully explains how the optic nerve damage occurs in the different types of glaucoma.

The Vascular Theory of Glaucoma

The premise of the vascular theory is that high pressure inside the eye restricts blood flow to the optic nerve causing the optic nerve to slowly die from lack of oxygen and nutrients.

The Mechanical Theory of Glaucoma

Physical damage is the underlying hypothesis of the mechanical theory of glaucoma. It is thought that the high pressure damages the optic nerve fibers.

So Which One Is It?

That’s a good question the leading researchers can make a convincing case for both theories and neither theory, by itself can completely explain how glaucoma damages the eye. In reality both probably play a role in how an eye is damaged by glaucoma.

I have mentioned to many of our dry eye patients that a creme with testosterone was being researched and would give us another avenue of relief for our patients.  Argentis has licensed a testosterone-progesterone therapy for dry eye syndrome.  Argentis is licensing this compound from the Southern College of Optometry. I expect this compound to be very helpful for patients with dry eyes and look forward to prescribing it for our patients.  It is not available for us to prescribe yet, however we will update this entry as soon as it is.