Preface

Chapter 8 **Designing Hands-On Robotics Courses for Students with Visual**

Valerie Stehling, Lana Plumanns, Anja Richert, Frank Hees and

**Impairment or Blindness 133**

Sabina Jeschke

**VI** Contents

Blindness and cancer are the two most feared entities worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 285 million people (4%) out of the 7.2 billion world population had either low vision (246 million) or blindness (49 million) in 2014. Ninety percent of them live in low-eco‐ nomic settings and eighty-two percent are over 50 years of age. Eighty percent of visual impairment can be prevented or cured. The best examples are correction of refractive errors and cataract sur‐ gery. Although 230,000 ophthalmologists are spread throughout the world, their distribution is uneven. Even if it were even, lack of functional ophthalmic instruments and medications in many parts of the world prevents proper treatment. Thus, the essential purpose of ophthalmologists and researchers is to prevent blindness and, if it is reversible, to cure it. Indeed, patients should leave the ophthalmology department or clinic better than when they came in. The degree of improvement may be variable and we as ophthalmologists should aim for the best. When patients leave the de‐ partment or clinic worse than when they came in, we have failed. Although most of the common eye diseases that impair vision can be treated fairly simply, for some diseases, the cure may be limited and early diagnosis and treatment are imperative (e.g., retinal disorders and glaucoma). In case of inevitable impaired vision or blindness, successful coping is required from the patients, their families, surroundings, society, and the state because blindness is a major burden for all.

This book is aimed at addressing different causes of visual impairment and blindness, their epi‐ demiology, manifestations, risk factors, prevention of progression, and treatment. It is aimed at encouraging physicians and researchers to increase efforts to prevent irreversible and treat rever‐ sible blindness for the betterment of the world. Therefore, it is essential to be fully aware and knowledgeable of the manifestations of the diseases causing blindness and this book covers some of their different aspects. Each chapter was written by experts from around the globe. Thus, it reflects the importance of the subject.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section, Causes of Blindness, includes chapters on blindness due to mustard gas neuro-ophthalmological diseases and glaucoma. The second section addresses the evaluation and manifestation of visual impairment (glare in ocular disorders). The third section, Coping with Visual Impairment and Blindness, contains chapters on coping with im‐ pairment, psychological adaptation, assistive systems, and designing hands-on robotic courses.

My sincere and deep gratitude goes to the authors for their time and effort. Deep appreciation goes to Ms. Romina Rovan, the Publishing Process Manager, for her endless devotion to publish‐ ing this book, and to the publisher IntechOpen for this excellent project. This book is a balanced result of efforts to publish in a timely manner and to cover the topic as much as possible. Hope‐ fully, additional books will cover more aspects of this important issue.

> **Shimon Rumelt** Western Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya Bar Ilan Faculty of Medicine, Zefat Israel

**Section 1**

**Causes of Blindness**

**Section 1**

**Causes of Blindness**

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Corneal Blindness Caused by Mustard Gas**

**Corneal Blindness Caused by Mustard Gas**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.70469

Mustard gas is a lipophilic, highly cytotoxic agent that rapidly penetrates tissue, and the eye is one of the organs mostly affected. Mustard gas-related ocular injuries can be divided into immediate, chronic, and delayed-onset phases. Late complications, developing after 1–40 years, can cause progressive and permanent reduction in visual acuity and even blindness. A wide range of late ocular involvements have been reported, which include chronic blepharitis, limbal ischemia and stem cell deficiency, and corneal scarring and neovascularization. The majority of corneal involvements are limited to the anterior stroma, leaving the posterior stroma and endothelium relatively intact. Therefore, lamellar keratoplasty is appropriate for the management of corneal involvements in the majority of victims. This procedure can be performed alone or in combination with limbal stem cell transplantation.

**Keywords:** corneal blindness, mustard gas, corneal involvement, keratitis

sulfide, ethylene chlorohydrin, and hydrochloric gas [1, 2].

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The exact date of the first sulfur mustard synthesis is somewhat unclear, but the first report by Despretz may have been in 1822. An 1860 report by Neimann described a delayed-effect vesicant oil as a reaction product of ethylene on a mixture of sulfur chlorides. In 1886, a process to produce significant quantities of pure sulfur mustard was described by Meyer using sodium

Mustard gas was used for the first time by German forces against Allied troops in July 12, 1917 that caused more than 2100 casualties. The Allies began using mustard gas against German troops in 1918. During 1935–1936, the Italian army dropped mustard-gas bombs in Ethiopia to destroy Emperor Haile Selassie's army. During 1963–1967, Egypt used mustard gas and a

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70469

Sepehr Feizi

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

**1.1. History**

Sepehr Feizi

**Provisional chapter**
