Contents:
- What is Duane syndrome?
- What causes Duane syndrome?
- Symptoms of Duane syndrome
- What is the special treatment for people who experience this syndrome?
Eyes are a gift that everyone has in order to see clearly. The eyes can be moved glancing right, left, up, or down quickly and easily. However, do you know there are some people who can't look right or left like normal eyes? Yes, Duane syndrome makes it difficult for people who experience it to rotate one or both eyes outward or inward. This is a complete review of the condition of Duane syndrome.
What is Duane syndrome?
Duane syndrome is a rare eye disorder experienced since birth. The muscles and nerves around the eyes do not function properly, this makes the eyes do not move properly.
This occurs when the nerves that control the eye muscles do not grow normally during pregnancy. As a result, some muscles that should stretch and loosen when moved cannot function.
This syndrome does not cause blindness and has no other impact on health. Often, only one eye experiences this syndrome. However, 20 percent of people who experience this syndrome experience problems in their eyes.
Reporting from the WebMD page, there are three types of Duane syndrome, namely:
- Type 1: People who cannot move the eyes of those who experience Duane syndrome out of the ear. This is the most common type of Duane syndrome.
- Type 2: Eyes affected by Duane syndrome cannot move in the direction of the nose.
- Type 3: Eyes affected by Duane syndrome cannot move outside or inside.
What causes Duane syndrome?
Experts suspect something is happening between the 3rd and 8th weeks of pregnancy, causing this syndrome. These times are times when the baby's nerves and eye muscles begin to develop.
As a result, abnormal development occurs or fails to develop at all in the 6th cranial nerve. The 6th cranial nerve is the nerve that controls the lateral rectus muscle (the muscle that turns the eye towards the ear).
Not only is the 6th cranial nerve, it is thought to be related to the 3rd cranial nerve which usually controls the medial rectus muscle (the muscle that turns the eye toward the nose). If both nerves are disturbed, abnormalities occur when looking outward or inward. The most common is a disorder of the 6th cranial nerve.
Why the nerve development is disturbed is not yet known. The possibility of this condition is influenced by several things. For example there are problems in certain genes or pregnant women are exposed to something in the environment. However, until now it was unclear what actually caused this syndrome.
Symptoms of Duane syndrome
Most of these cases are the main signs of limited eyeball movement. In addition, the following characteristics can also be signs that need to be watched out:
- The position of the eye is not parallel to the right and left (called the squint or strabismus eye).
- Narrowing of the eyelids. One eye looks smaller than the other.
- Visibility decreases in eyes that are experiencing interference.
- The affected eye looks up and down.
- Often tilting or turning your head to try to keep their eyes straight.
- Some people also experience double vision and headaches.
- Having neck pain because it often adjusts the head position.
What is the special treatment for people who experience this syndrome?
There is no specific cure for Duane syndrome. Doctors usually provide ways to help children look forward correctly. At school, children are usually placed in special seats so they can look forward well without having to move the head position.
So far there is no surgical technique that really works to eliminate abnormal eye movements, because the cranial nerves that cause this problem cannot be repaired or replaced.
Even if surgery is done, surgery is usually done to improve the alignment of the eye position that is too far away, to eliminate the interference that occurs in the abnormal part of the eyelid.
Other treatments are usually done to reduce the symptoms that arise such as handling headaches, double vision, or neck pain.
