Question
My eyes are a bit swollen, sometimes painful, and my vision has severely declined. The corners of my eyes have started to become inflamed. Could I have visual nerve atrophy, and can it be treated with surgery?
Answer
The causes of visual nerve atrophy include external factors like six kinds of pathogenic factors, emotional stagnation, irregular diet, overexertion, physical weakness due to febrile diseases, head trauma, and congenital deficiencies. Traditional Chinese medicine treats visual nerve atrophy primarily through dialectical treatment, stabilizing the fundus circulation, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, cooling blood with medicine, anti-inflammatory detoxification, and softening blood vessels to repair damaged vessel walls and maintain the patency of retinal blood vessels. Treatment methods include acupuncture and traditional Chinese herbal decoctions, but these methods can only alleviate the progression of the disease and cannot effectively improve vision. Currently, the effectiveness of surgical treatment for visual nerve atrophy is not yet clear.