[Understanding refraction disorders and oculomotor problems during pregnancy]

Abstract

During pregnancy, hormonal and hemodynamic modifications can generate a number of organic consequences, specifically ocular, more or less regressive in systemic disease. Refraction disorders are marked by myopization, often not very significant and always regressive within six weeks after the childbirth. Pregnancy could cause a thickening of the cornea and a modification of its curvature. Likewise, contact lens intolerance is common, secondary to the modification of lacrimal film, but does not systematically contraindicate lens wearing. Photorefractive surgeries are ill-advised during pregnancy. Hemeralopia is the most common visual complaint of the pregnant woman. Oculomotor disorders are exceptional. Convergence insufficiency or accommodation disorders are the most common anomalies described. These disorders usually regress in the postpartum period. Oculomotor palsies could be the first symptoms of pre-eclampsia or an associated intracranial pathology. They are specific palsies such as in the abducens nerve and the oculomotor nerve in very unusual cases. Nevertheless, oculomotor paralysis in the pregnant woman should motivate neuroradiological exploration. Intensive labor can be rhegmatogenous in women with severe myopia. Examination of the retinal periphery is systematic before and during pregnancy in these cases. Systematic cesarean section is not formally indicated. It is nevertheless preferable to facilitate delivery with epidural anesthesia.