Q: My 22-year-old friend is suffering from a severe eye problem for the last 10 years. His eyes keep roving so fast that he cannot see my face clearly from a distance of 40 cm. Since last year, he is having numinplus tablet per day and taking renervplus injection per month, but without any improvement. He has to tilt his head at a 30 degree angle to see things clearly. How can he get rid of this problem?

A:This condition is called nystagmus and it usually appears as early as three months after birth. It is caused by very poor vision in both eyes for whatever reason like the need for glasses, cataract, etc. This is usually checked for and corrected soon after birth otherwise it can never be corrected and vision remains poor for the rest of the life. Sometimes it is caused by problems in the brain, but in this case as it has been there for the last 10 years (though I suspect it was there for much longer but went unnoticed), it is not serious. But at the same time I feel it is not going to improve much now. The tablets being taken are useless. However, I will advise him to see a good eye specialist for checking the need for glasses and general health of the inside of the eyes. Some improvement is possible and there are operations which will reduce the movement, but not eliminate it. This operation will also reduce his head tilt and improve vision significantly.