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"Periocular warming" - it more than just feels good!

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  • "Periocular warming" - it more than just feels good!

    I have a bunch of eye issues (severe accommodative spasm, binocular dysfunction after three alignment surgeries, severe dry eyes despite 4x punctal cautery, etc.). When you have pain from any issue, it often masks symptoms of the other issues; can't always tell what's what.

    I've been doing "periocular warming stuff" for eye pain for years:

    1) Periodic use of warm, moist washcloth over the eyes;

    2) Periodic use of one of those 'corn-filled' bags, heated mildly in
    the microwave, over the eyes;

    3) Cajoling my wife into massaging the area around my eyes;

    4) Computer is by the window. I tend to type with eyes closed and sun
    beating on them.

    I've always found, at least palliative, relief of symptoms. Now it seems it's worth more than that....

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Citation

    OR: http://snipurl.com/hra2

    QUOTED:

    The effect of periocular warming on accommodation.

    Takahashi Y, Igaki M, Suzuki A, Takahashi G, Dogru M, Tsubota K.

    Department of Ophthalmology, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. genichirot@aol.com

    PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of periocular warming on accommodation amplitude and near vision after prolonged near work in visual display terminal (VDT) workers in an office setting. DESIGN: Prospective interventional observational case series. PARTICIPANTS: Ten healthy Japanese male volunteers (mean age, 39.3+/-2 years [range, 36-43]) with a best distance corrected visual acuity (VA) of >20/20 who performed near work for 7 hours were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The differences of subjective and objective accommodations, near acuity, and pupil diameters were compared and studied in 2 experimental settings with and without periocular warming. METHODS: Two experiments were performed on each subject on 2 different days. In one experiment, the subjects wore an eye mask and closed their eyelids for 10 minutes after 7 hours of VDT work (lid closure [LC] group). In the other experiment, the subjects applied warming sheets (WSs) to their eyelids and the periocular region and wore masks for 10 minutes again after 7 hours of VDT work (WS group). Visual display terminal work was performed under the same settings on both days. Subjective and objective accommodations, near vision, and pupil diameters were measured immediately before and immediately after the resting or warming procedure and again 90 minutes after the resting or warming procedures. RESULTS: Fifty percent of eyes had an increase in the accommodation amplitude of at least 0.5 diopters immediately after application of the WSs. Forty percent of eyes still maintained the accommodation amplitude level at 90 minutes. The mean near logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution VA immediately after application of WSs and at 90 minutes significantly improved relative to the near acuity values after simple eyelid closure. CONCLUSION: Periocular warming was found to be associated with increases in subjective and objective accommodations, with a concomitant improvement in near VA. Periocular warming with disposable WSs is a simple and effective method of increasing near work-related ergonomy.

  • #2
    Very interesting abstract!

    For dry eye patients, warming is far from just a feel-good thing - it can improve meibomian gland function and reduce evaporative tear loss by loosening & liquefying hardened oily secretions plugging the glands. Lots of patients here (myself included) use warm compresses of various sorts. Rice baggy in the microwave is one of the favorites amongst the "connoisseurs".
    Rebecca Petris
    The Dry Eye Foundation
    dryeyefoundation.org
    800-484-0244

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