LENS TIPS
Move over, Carpal Tunnel...There's a new computer culprit
By John Van Wie

Most computer users are well aware of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), which in a July 1997 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) report, was said to affect almost 51,000 people in 1996.

According to several published articles, however, CTS is no longer the issue in computer use. Today, it's computer eyestrain that seems to be growing as fast as the proliferation of computers themselves...and for good reason.

In an August 1998 Eyecare Business article, Dr. Robert Lee and Joseph Bruneni, of the Southern California College of Optometry, state, "Between 50 and 90 percent of computer workers express visual complaints of one kind or another. Out of 84 million eye exams given each year, 12 percent are prompted by computer vision syndrome (CVS) complaints." That's more than 10 million exams a year.

A BINOCULAR DYSFUNCTION

A well documented, though almost forgotten root cause of computer eyestrain (or CVS) is a binocular dysfunction called "excyclorotation." Prism can be used to compensate for it.

First recognized in the 1950s, this dysfunction occurs when a person shifts his or her gaze from desk level to work at eye level or above and also at arms length. As Gunter K. Von Noorden, M.D., explains it, "Near vision (convergence) induces an excyclorotation that becomes greater the more the eyes converge. This cyclorotation increases with the elevation of gaze and decreases with depression of gaze for a given degree of convergence."

In layman's terms, this means that as a person looks from a keyboard or desktop to a monitor, the eyes roll out in opposite directions. Subsequently, the surrounding muscles must turn the eyes back in and hold them in position. During extended periods of viewing--that is, an hour or more--the eyes begin to tire, causing blurred vision, head-aches, neck and shoulder tension, and many other sensations def-ined as CVS.

MAGNIFICATION + PRISM

Traditional methods for treating computer eyestrain have been various forms of magnification--including everything from drug store readers, bifocals, and progressives to monitor magnifiers--as well as solutions like eye drops, AR coatings, and tints. Most of these only provide partial re-lief, and none of them compensate for excyclorotation.

How can prism help? In the April 1996 issue of the Journal of American Optometric Association, Stuart M. Lazarus, O.D., wrote about "the use of yoked base-up and base-in prism for reducing eye strain at the computer."

Why? Combining prism and plus power (magnification) in what is referred to as a prism section lens is clinically proven to have a mitigating impact which compensates for the excyclorotation that occurs. Therefore, it relaxes the surrounding eye muscles and relieves this root cause of eyestrain.

Using such a combination will hopefully bring an end to eyestrain for many computer users. For corporate America, that translates to both monetary savings and increased productivity gains.

John Van Wie is the CEO of the Computer Lens Corporation, headquartered in Latham, N.Y.