How Can Smoking Harm Your Vision?

As we all know, there are not only a variety of harmful substances in tobacco, but also a high content of harmful substances. Smoking can induce many diseases, such as lung cancer, bronchitis, gastric ulcer and so on. But people don't know that smoking is also harmful to the eyes!

 

Harmful substances in tobacco can cause great damage to eye tissues, cause many eye diseases, and affect vision. Common examples include cataracts, amblyopia, central retinal vascular embolism, macular degeneration, chronic conjunctivitis, and glaucoma.

 

Eye Diseases Caused by Smoking

 

Tobacco toxic amblyopia is caused by the consumption of oxygen inhaled by the human body during smoking, resulting in a decrease in blood oxygen content. The retina of the eye is extremely sensitive to hypoxia. Over time, the optic nerve fiber will degenerate and the macular area of the retinal papilla will shrink. At the same time, the cigarette tar produced when the tobacco is burned will cause a decrease in the amount of vitamin B12 in the body, which is an essential nutrient for maintaining the normal function of the optic nerve.

In addition to tobacco toxic amblyopia, smoking can also cause the following eye diseases.

 

1. Chronic conjunctivitis. Symptoms include dry eyes, foreign body irritation, congestion and redness. In severe cases, the eyes are afraid of light, often tearing, and accompanied by burning pain. This is mostly caused by the direct stimulation of smoke. If you don't quit smoking, this chronic conjunctivitis is often not cured for a long time.

 

2. Hemorrhage of the retina and vitreous. This is due to harmful substances such as nicotine and carbon monoxide contained in tobacco, which can cause retinal vasospasm, hyperplatelet aggregation, and induce retinal artery or vein occlusion. Studies have shown that smokers are more likely to suffer from retinal and vitreous hemorrhage than non-smokers, especially for patients with diabetes or high blood pressure.

 

3. Cataracts. Medical surveys show that 20% of cataract patients are related to long-term smoking. Someone has observed that people who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day are twice as likely to develop cataracts as non-smokers. And the more you smoke, the more likely you are to develop cataracts.

 

4. Increased intraocular pressure. Studies have shown that smokers sometimes have increased intraocular pressure, which is more obvious in people who have glaucoma. Glaucoma damages the optic nerve of your eyes and causes a gradual loss of vision.

 

5. Central retina embolism. When smoking, CO, nicotine and other toxic substances produced and inhaled in the body can cause vasoconstriction and platelet aggregation, which can easily cause embolism of the central blood vessel of the retina.

 

If the amount of bleeding in vitreous hemorrhage is small, no special treatment is needed; if the amount of bleeding is large, surgery may be necessary. Cataracts and glaucoma can be treated with medication, laser treatment and surgery.

 

In summary, surgical treatment of eye diseases is more common. Ophthalmic surgical instruments are composed of tweezers, scissors, knives, etc. Among them, there are the following types of ophthalmic scissors: iris scissors, corneal scissors, conjunctival scissors and intraocular scissors.

 

In addition, it also includes lens implant forceps, ring tissue forceps, needle driver and forceps; eye surgery forceps, corneal forceps, eye forceps, eye ligation forceps, bayonet forceps ear forceps; eye surgery hooks; vitreous cutter, eye fixed ring, eyelid opener, and disposable speculum with light.

 

The material of ophthalmic surgical instruments is generally stainless steel, which is relatively fine, such as stainless steel medical scissors and stainless steel speculum. During the operation, in order to prevent the outflow of aqueous humor in the eye, ophthalmic surgical instruments cannula should be used to inject gel into the patient’s eye to open up the intraocular space.

 

Smoking brings a series of health problems, so quitting smoking is feasible.