9-year-old almost loses vision after ignoring cricket ball injury, regains it after 4 surgeries

PUNE: A nine-year-old boy from the city suffered a severe eye injury from a cricket ball, which almost cost him his vision. Fearing his parents' reaction, he delayed telling them about the injury for two months, by which time his vision had deteriorated significantly due to retinal scarring.

Fortunately, after undergoing four surgeries over two years, the vision was eventually restored.Ophthalmologist Dr Harsh Jain with the National Institute of Ophthalmology said, "Due to the delay in informing his parents, the injury became severe leading to scarring and blindness in the right eye. Upon realising the severity of the condition, he was finally brought to our hospital in March 2023. We diagnosed his injury as Traumatic Subluxated Cataract with retinal detachment and proliferative retinopathy, which is basically scarring on the retina due to the injury.

"A Traumatic Subluxated Cataract is a type of eye injury that occurs when the lens inside the eye becomes partially dislocated (subluxated) due to trauma, often resulting in cataract formation.

Dr Jain, who assisted during the treatment procedure, said, "The scarring had to be removed to fix the retina back in place, which was the most complex part of the surgery. Firstly, the removal of the scarred tissue in children is difficult, and secondly, there is always a tendency that it can come back again, which can cause a recurrence in detachment."

When the doctors operated on the patient for the first time in April 2023 he developed a recurrence due to the scarring that is more common in children than adults since their body's repair mechanism is stronger. Dr Mounika Bolisety, retina consultant, also part of the treatment procedure, said, "To get rid of the scarring, we took up a series of surgeries, including one in Sept 2023, then another in Feb 2024 and the final one in July 2024, to put the lens in place behind the iris and subsequently remove the silicone oil, which was used to fix the retina back in place for the final surgery.

After these surgeries, regular follow-ups were conducted for more than six months. During his last follow up in July this year, the patient regained vision of 15-20 feet."On the need for four surgeries, Dr Aditya Kelkar, director at NIO Super Specialty Hospital who performed the surgery, said, "In the first surgery, the cataract was removed and the retina was reattached with the help of a laser. Then silicone oil was added and a laser was used (which works like welding).

During the second surgery, the recurrent scar tissue on the retina was removed and the oil was reinjected. In the third operation, the same procedure was done, and in addition, some bad parts of the retina were removed (also known as retinectomy).

Then the recurrent scar tissue was removed. Lastly, in the fourth surgery, the silicone oil was removed, and a new lens was fixed behind the iris as the natural lens support was damaged due to injury."Dr Kelkar said, "Most children and even adults would either hide or brush off injuries caused to the eye during a sport as frivolous. Such delay in identifying serious trauma can lead to further complications. The scarring in this patient's eye was severe enough that four separate surgeries had to be performed. The child still has a long way to go to recover his vision to a good extent."