Q: My three years old daughter received a blow on the eye. I took her to the hospital next day and to my surprise, the doctor said that she had very poor vision (when no one in the family has this problem). Her power is right eye: spherical - cylindrical: 1.75+, axis: 80 and the right eye – spherical : 0.75+-, cylindrical: 0.75+ and axis: 90. Kindly let me know whether the condition is because of the injury or is it by birth? Also, please let me know the medical terminology used for this problem? Does the power improve with age? Please help.

A:Your 3-year-old daughter seems to have a refractive error, which is not very high. In medical terminology it’s called astigmatism. The right eye has a purely cylindrical error while the left eye has a spherical and a cylindrical error. However it is not clear from your description whether the spherical in the left eye is plus (+) or minus (-). The other thing I would like to know is whether your daughter’s eyes were dilated with a cycloplegic agent before her number was checked because that may make a difference in calculating the correct power at such a young age. Also you mentioned that your daughter has very poor vision. This is unlikely with such a small refractive error. Please ask your eye specialist to check her retina, etc. completely if her vision is not improving and if there is a difference in vision in the two eyes, which may make one eye lazy. On the whole a simple refractive error like this is nothing to worry about. These numbers may not increase much and there may not be a family history associated with them either. All you need to do is get her number verified under dilation and keep her under regular follow up atleast every 6 months to keep a check on her refractive error and vision.