A cycle of free specialist consultations in ophthalmology is underway
The campaign begins Open Your Eyes to Dry Eyes, the national awareness and information event on Dry Eye Disease which provides, from 6 to 19 May 2024, free specialist consultations in 18 specialized centers in three Regions (Lombardy, Lazio and Campania). Consultations can be booked on the toll-free number 800 226466 or on the website www.aprigliocchi2024.it following completion of the OSDI 6 (Ocular Surface Disease Index 6) questionnaire, a short self-assessment questionnaire used to evaluate the symptoms and impact of ocular surface diseases such as dry eye syndrome. The campaign, created by Alcon, with the organizational support of Sintesi education, intends to raise awareness among approximately 13 million people in Italy, and approximately 1 million in Lazio, who present symptoms attributable to Dry Eye Disease, not to underestimate this pathology and to contact a specialized center to obtain one correct diagnosis which allows intervention with the most appropriate management.
Approximately 13 million Italians (1 in 5) therefore declare that they have symptoms attributable to Dry Eye Disease, but approximately 7 million do not recognize the symptoms and do not undergo an eye examination.2 The aging of the population, the worsening the quality of the atmosphere in which we live and the increase in the hours we spend in front of the PC represent proven risk factors for this disease.
Dry Eye Disease is a pathology caused by a progressive decrease in the production of tears or an increase in their evaporation. The consequences are burning, itching, irritationforeign body sensation, photophobia.1 Metabolic and hormonal dysfunctions, autoimmune diseases, increase in average environmental temperatures, areas with high pollution, use of contact lenses, some pharmacological therapies are some of the most frequent causes of dehydration.
“Dry Eye is one of the least known and at the same time most annoying diseases; the World Health Organization itself claims that it is one of the most ignored and underestimated disorders of modern society. Many people experience symptoms but are not aware that they suffer from them,” he wrote Antonio Di Zazzo, associate professor of diseases of the visual system, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario, Campus Bio-Medico of Rome. Ophthalmologists are the fundamental reference figures because, today, they have the possibility of precisely diagnosing alterations in the tear film, they have precise diagnostic tools which, being able to analyze the quality and quantity of the tear, its composition, tonicity, they are able to identify – in a personalized way for each patient – the most appropriate therapy, even when this disease is still in its initial stage”.
