White Pupil - The Possible Dangers of Leucokoria
Hello guys,
It is nattybongo here with you once again and i must say already the weekend has come to an end. It was a fun run while it lasted though however as the week draws nigh i do wish us all Godspeed in all our activities at our various workplaces and all.
So, as usual, I am here to share some health lessons with you as i tend to do every day and for our lesson today we would be looking at a pediatric condition that when neglected could prove very futile and even cost us the life of the child who may be involved. And so i hope you consider today's lesson critical.
Leucokoria
Leucokoria simply refers a white reflex from inside of the eye or the retina of the eye. For any normal person when light is shone on you espeically in the dark we are expecting to have some form of red or orange reflex come from within the eye. This is what the media men complain of when they take a picture or a video and light reflects from within your eye.
A lot of times they use different tech or software to eliminate that or edit it from it but then today we are learning that this is actually a good thing and proves that our retina is probably healthy as i need to be. However, if this tend not to be so then there should be a reason for concern, especially in pediatrics.
Individuals with white reflex from the eye could also be as a result of cataract though because of which it would be pertinent that if you see this with your ward or child you take them to the nearest eye care facility for comprehensive examination and diagnosis as well as the recommend referrals that may be warranted.
But for the purpose of what we are looking at today, we want to look at a white reflex from the pupil as a possible sign of retinoblastoma. A child having a while pupillary reflex or retina reflex has a very high chance of developing retinoblastoma which is basically cancer of the eye and as such should be dealt with immediately to prevent its metastasis.
Retinoblastoma
It is a malignant cancer of the eye which is not only sight threatening but life threatening if left on it's own as it can metastasize to the optic nerve and into the brain and the system causing havoc all around. It is associated with pediatric care and tend to be quite disturbing if not cared for.
The condition is know to have some genetic relation and show to be autosomal dominant in it's mode of transmission. Aside from the white pupil one may also notice false pus in the anterior chamber, blood in the anterior chamber of the eye, close angle glaucoma and swelling of the eye.
Children who may be treated or managed for the condition have a chance of cancer returning because of which it becomes pertinent that they have regular care at their eye care facility. Unfortunately though the exact cause of the condition is yet to be truly identified and studied because of which i can not suggest to you any practices whatsoever that may prevent your child from getting the condition.
Conclusion/Management
Nonetheless, it is always best to give your child the best of care in terms of health and to do your very possible best for your eye care always. Noticing your child has a white pupil from pictures should prompt you to immediately take them for assessment
Retinoblastoma is treated with surgical intervention which may involve the removal of the eye with cancer on most occasions. The child may also undergo laser therapy as a well as cryotherapy, there is also the option of chemotherapy depending on what the oncologist may advise.
In almost all ocular conditions or cases like this i like to add to the fact that early diagnosis is critical to preventing complete vision loss and so we should always pay lots of attention to our wards and do our best to be observant in anything they do. I hope that you learnt a thing or two from today's lesson that might just save a child's life one day.
Rerefences
Kanukollu VM, Tripathy K. Leukocoria. [Updated 2022 Feb 21]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560794/
Ortiz, M. V., & Dunkel, I. J. (2016). Retinoblastoma. Journal of child neurology, 31(2), 227–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/0883073815587943
Saiju, R., & Duwal, S. (2013). Bilateral retinoblastoma in early infancy. Nepalese journal of ophthalmology : a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal of the Nepal Ophthalmic Society : NEPJOPH, 5(1), 124–128. https://doi.org/10.3126/nepjoph.v5i1.7840
Ancona-Lezama, D., Dalvin, L. A., & Shields, C. L. (2020). Modern treatment of retinoblastoma: A 2020 review. Indian journal of ophthalmology, 68(11), 2356–2365. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijo.IJO_721_20
Your post has been supported by @tarpan using @steemcurator07 account.
Thank you for making a post in the #Science/ #Computing/ #Technology category. We appreciate the work you have put into this post.
We have analyzed your post and come up with the following conclusion:
Follow @steemitblog for all the latest update.