What do you suggest for nerve eye palsy?

Posted on Wed, 5 Mar 2014

Question: been diagnosed with 6th nerve eye palsy im a 57 year old male. im wearing glasses with prisms for 2 weeks don't see any improvement. what else can i do. and whats my chances of this being corrected

Answered by Dr. N. K. Misra (2 hours later)

My Dear, Thanks for sending your query to us. This is diabetic ophyhalmoplegia.There is no cause of worry. We in our practice patch alternate eye and not give prisms.The reason being that by giving prisms you are sort of giving crutches to the eye and not allowing the muscles to regenerate their own power.We have to take care of duoble vision and that we do by patching one eye ,though this may look a bit unsightly. The management consists of control of diabetese,vit.B complex and we at times give anti inflammatory drugs if needed. This is a self limiting prblem and may take up to 3 months to recover and by supportive tt. only. Have patience and as your CT is normal there is not much cause to worry. Please do get back to me in case of any further query in this regard.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. N. K. Misra (2 hours later)

Do you put the patch on the good eye or the bad eye. ?

Answered by Dr. N. K. Misra (11 minutes later)

My Dear, Thanks for getting back to us. The patching is done of both eyes alternately.Patching the good eye is difficult and seeing with good eye is normal.What we do in our practice is stick a piece of paper under the glass of one eye and next day wash this paper off under the tap and cut the paper of the size of glass and stick it under the glass of your spectacle with sticking gum. You have to choose the colour of paper as it should not look unsightly.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar