PD problem w slit lamp...

[wunerd04]

my eyes are closer together than i thought...when i look thru the slip lamp, i sometimes see double even when the eyepieces are pushed all the way together.

most of the time i can hit a sweet spot where this doesn't happen, but i'm afraid my eyes may be closer together than the average machine can accomodate... am i screwed? am i missing something? is it possible to get eyepieces that move closer together? please help me. i'm freaking out.

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[Krony]

What's your PD? At least thinking about the slit lamps at my institution, my intuitive sense is that those things push together pretty closely. Maybe you are tilting your head funny, or maybe the beam of light isn't exactly square? At least if you can hit a sweet spot most of the time, probably over time your head, eyes, and hands will progressively learn how to position to get that sweet spot a higher percentage of the time.

 

[orbitsurgMD]

my eyes are closer together than i thought...when i look thru the slip lamp, i sometimes see double even when the eyepieces are pushed all the way together.

most of the time i can hit a sweet spot where this doesn't happen, but i'm afraid my eyes may be closer together than the average machine can accomodate... am i screwed? am i missing something? is it possible to get eyepieces that move closer together? please help me. i'm freaking out.

Check to verify that it is you and not a particular slit lamp by trying more than one lamp.

Residency clinic equipment gets rode hard and put away wet. Sometimes parts come loose inside and can put the microscope out of collimation. That can give you double images. It is also easy enough to check.

If it isn't the scope, have a senior resident check you for CI. Also, most machines can accommodate most IPDs; if you are having someone check your convergence, have them check your PD as well.

Oh, and make sure that the diopter setting is correct on the eyepieces. Unless you are highly anisometropic or hyperopic, both should be set at plano.

 

[Wolverine98]

Oh, and make sure that the diopter setting is correct on the eyepieces. Unless you are highly anisometropic or hyperopic, both should be set at plano.

That's the first thought that came to my mind. I see that all the time. One of the attendings where I trained would occasionally intentionally do that to the slit lamps in the resident clinics to test people and see if they would notice. (It wasn't to be a pain in the you-know-what, but to teach us to recognize problems like that and to be able to troubleshoot slit lamp/microscope problems.)