Dr. Minji Ha, Clinical Director of the Anterior Segment Center, Hangil Eye Hospital ()
In the scorching summer, your eyes need good care!
High temperature and humidity in July and August can cause bacteria and viruses to multiply easily. People are more likely to be exposed to eye diseases than ever due to the environment in which air conditioning is on all day indoors and strong ultraviolet rays can affect during outdoor activities. What can you do to protect your eyes from the summer environment that can be threatening to your eye health and to keep them healthy?
Dry-eye syndrome appears more in the summer Dry-eye syndrome occurs when the tear film to protect your eyes has abnormalities due to various causes. If you have dry eyes, your eyes feel cold, uncomfortable with a sensation of something in your eyes, or dry with eye redness. It is known that it occurs more in the winter, which usually has a cold and dry wind. But even in the summer, you cannot be careful enough. Unexpectedly, many patients see an eye doctor for dry eyes in the summer.
In the summer, the hot weather gets people to stay with air conditioners or fans on. And the dry air indoors causes eyes to be more likely to be dry. When you look at a computer monitor for a long time or read books in a dry room, you blink your eyes less and the tear film on the surface of your eyes becomes dry, which causes dry eye syndrome.
In order to prevent dry eye syndrome, it is necessary to keep your eyes from directly contacting the wind from an air conditioner or a fan. Frequent ventilation indoors or using artificial tears is also helpful. If artificial tears or eye drops do not work, or the symptoms are getting worse or painful, you should visit a dry eye clinic to figure out the cause and take appropriate treatment.
Corneal abrasion: A superficial scratch on the eye A corneal abrasion occurs when your cornea is scratched by contact with external factors such as a leaf or sand. In the summer, it is often caused by strong breezes or sand at the beach. Once it occurs, it is easy to recur, so you had better be very careful not to get your eyes scratched.
In particular, many children tend to rub their eyes unintentionally. While they play with sand outdoors, you should warn them not to touch any part of their eyes with their hands. It is recommended to wear protective glasses or sunglasses when the breeze is too strong at the beach. Wearing sunglasses is also helpful to protect your eyes as they can block UV rays.
When artificial tears or eye drops do not help to relieve the uncomfortable gritty feeling or if you feel pain in your eyes, you can have a corneal abrasion. You need to find an eye doctor to get an accurate diagnosis and you need to apply eye ointment consistently.
Conjunctivitis: Frequent eye problems in summer An conjunctivitis is one of the most common eye problems caused by a virus in the summer. Wet and hot weather provides a good condition for viruses to proliferate. In the places including beaches, swimming pools, and water parks, where people are actively crowded in the summer, the virus spreads easily and eye diseases are more likely to occur.
One of the most common conjunctivitis in the summer is ‘epidemic keratoconjunctivitis’, which is caused by an adenovirus. Once infected, you will have tears, eye mucus, redness, itching, or pain in your eyes. After an incubation period of about one week, it develops for about three to four weeks with the symptoms in one eye at first. After a few days later, the other eye can be infected. Inflammation of the cornea can make symptoms worse and can lead to complications including corneal opacity. Children may also show systemic symptoms with fever and diarrhea.
There is no specific treatment for epidemic keratoconjunctivitis, so it is best to prevent them in advance. As it is highly contagious, it is important to wash your hands as frequently as possible and avoid touching your eyes or the peripheral area with your hands. When someone in your family has an epidemic keratoconjunctivitis, you have to separately use towels, toiletries, and blankets.
Source: Dr. Minji Ha, Clinical Director of the Anterior Segment Center, Hangil Eye Hospital
Award-winning eye hospital welcomes foreigners Hangil Eye Hospital is the only hospital specialized in ophthalmology in Incheon and the only medical institution in Korea to attract foreign patients, designated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. In 2019, it was selected as the ‘International Eye Hospital of the Year’ at ‘Medical Travel Awards 2019’ held in Berlin, Germany (International Medical Travel Journal: IMTJ).
As the best advantage of Hangil Eye Hospital, one-stop and one-day treatment is available for all ophthalmic diseases with specialists in each specified ophthalmology field. It consists of 36 doctors - 27 ophthalmologists, 3 internal medicine specialists, 2 anesthesiology & pain medicine specialists, and 4 fellows, who operate 6 treatment centers of anterior segment, retina, glaucoma, plastic ophthalmology, vision correction surgery, pediatric strabismus, and amblyopia, along with 1 dry eye clinic. Especially, internal medicine and anesthesia & pain medicine help patients to take surgery safely and conveniently.
By the numbers - 5,871 cases-5,871 cataract surgeries achieved in 2020 (6,486 cases in 2019) - 223,445-outpatients in 2020 (200,000 outpatients surpassed in 2017) - n27-27 ophthalmologists (Including 12 retinal specialists) - Grade 1: Grade 1 in the use of prophylactic antibiotics for surgery, Grade 1 in drug reimbursement adequacy evaluation - 1 First- Performed Incheon’s first refractive-corrected laser keratectomy (1992) - Performed Incheon’s first corneal cutting laser (LASIK Surgery) (June 1996) - Established overseas charity hospital as the first Incheon medical institution (June 2003, Uzbekistan) - Opened the first dry eye clinic in Incheon (July 2016) - Surpassed 1,000 cases of Incheon’s first annual retinal surgery (December 2017) - Designated as the first ophthalmology hospital in Korea to attract foreign patients (August 2017) - Selected as ‘International Eye Hospital of the Year’ at the IMTJ Medical Travel Awards 2019, the first hospital in Korea (December, 2019) - Hangil’s 6 specialized centers and 1 specified clinic. One-Stop total care for your eyes starts here.
