Retina
Community Eye Center and St. Lucy’s Eye Surgery Center are both committed to excellence in the medical and surgical treatment of retina, macula and vitreous diseases.
Offering state of the art treatment options to our patients for a variety of eye conditions, including:
- Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ARMD)
- Retinal Detachments and Tears
- Macular Holes
- Macular Edema
- Diabetic Retinopathy
- Epiretinal Membrane (Wrinkled Retina)
- Choroidal Nevus (Freckle)
- Vitreous Hemorrhages
- Artery/Vein Occlusion
- Central Serous Retinopathy
- Vitreomacular Traction
More About Retina
Torn Retina And Laser Surgery
Torn Retina. The inner eye is filled with a clear jelly-like substance called vitreous. As we age, the vitreous becomes less like jelly and more like liquid. Usually, the vitreous is only loosely attached to the retina so as the eye moves the vitreous moves away from the retina without causing problems. Sometimes though, the vitreous pulls hard enough to tear the retina. Flashes of light or floaters can appear in the field of vision.
To repair a retinal tear with laser surgery, your ophthalmologist uses a laser to make small burns around the tear. The procedure creates scars that seal the retina to the wall of the eye, helping the retina from detaching completely.
Torn Retina & Cryopexy
To repair a retinal tear with Cryopexy, your eye surgeon uses a special probe that applies intense cold energy to freeze the retina around the tear. This creates swelling that eventually becomes scar tissue. It is this scar tissue that seals the retina to the wall of the eye- helping to prevent the retina from detaching completely.
Retinal Detachment and Tears
The retina is the light-sensitive area lining the back of the eye that sends signals through the optic nerve to the brain where these signals become the images that we see. The inner eye is filled with a clear jelly-like substance called vitreous. As we age, the vitreous becomes less like jelly and more like liquid. Usually the vitreous is only loosely attached to the retina. So as the eye moves, the vitreous moves away from the retina without causing problems.
Sometimes though the vitreous pulls hard enough to tear the retina. When the fluid passes through the tear and lifts the retina off the back of the eye, it is called a retinal detachment. Flashes of light or floaters can appear in the field of vision.
Retinal Detachment
Pneumatic Retinopexy. During pneumatic retinopexy, your eye surgeon will inject a gas bubble into the middle of your eyeball. Your head will be positioned to allow the gas bubble to float to the detached area of the retina and flatten it. The retinal tear is then sealed with either a freezing probe or a laser beam, either immediately or in a few days. This depends on the type and location of the tear.
Vitrectomy. During a vitrectomy, your ophthalmologist makes a tiny incision in the sclera or the white of the eye. A small instrument is placed into the eye to remove the vitreous gel. Once the vitreous is removed, your surgeon will inject a gas or silicone oil bubble in the eye to push the retina back against the wall of the eye. The tears in weak areas of the retina are then sealed with either a freezing probe or a laser treatment.
Retinal Tear
Retinal Cryopexy (Cryotherapy)To repair a retinal tear with cryopexy, your eye surgeon uses a special probe that applies an intense cold energy to freeze the retina around the tear. This creates swelling that eventually becomes scar tissue. It is this scar tissue that seals the retina to the wall of the eye, helping to prevent the retina from detaching completely.
Retinal Photocoagulation. To repair a retinal tear with laser surgery, your ophthalmologist uses a laser to make small burns around the tear the procedure creates scars that seal the retina to the wall of the eye helping to prevent the retina from detaching completely.
Macular Holes
What does the retina do?
Light rays enter the eye through the cornea, pupil and lens. These light rays are focused on the retina, the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye. The retina sends signals through the optic nerve to the brain where these signals become the images we see.
What is the macula?
The retina has two areas: the peripheral retina which gives us our side or wide-angle vision and the macula the small area at the center of the retina. The macula gives us our pinpoint vision allowing us to see clearly.
How is a macular hole formed?
The inner eye is filled with a clear jelly-like substance called the vitreous. As we age the vitreous becomes less like jelly and more like liquid. Usually the vitreous is only loosely attached to the retina so as the eye moves, the vitreous moves away from the macula without causing problems. In some cases, however, the vitreous sticks to the macula and is unable to pull away. As a result, the macula tissue stretches and a hole may form.
What happens during a vitrectomy?
To perform a vitrectomy the ophthalmologist makes tiny incisions in the sclera or white of the eye a small instrument is placed into the eye to remove the vitreous gel. Once the vitreous gel is removed your surgeon also may remove some membranes on the surface of the macula. Generally, a gas bubble is injected into the eye to help flatten the macular hole and hold the retinal tissue in place while it heals.
Age-Related Macular Degeneration
Light rays enter the eye through the cornea, pupil and lens. These light rays are focused on the retina, the light-sensitive tissue lining the back of the eye. The retina sends signals through the optic nerve to the brain where these signals become the images we see.
The retina has two areas: the peripheral retina which gives us our side or wide-angle vision and the macula the small area at the center of the retina. The macula gives us our pinpoint vision allowing us to see clearly.
Macular Degeneration is the leading cause of severe vision loss in people over the age of 60. It occurs when the small central portion of the retina, known as the macula, deteriorates. The retina is the light- sensing nerve tissue at the back of the eye. Because the disease develops as a person ages, it is often referred to as age-related macular degeneration. Although macular degeneration is almost never a totally blinding condition, it can be a source of significant visual disability.
Wet and Dry Macular Degeneration
The dry form of macular degeneration occurs when the light-sensitive cells in the macula gradually break down, resulting in distortion of sharp, central vision.
When this form becomes advanced, it can result in the wet form of the disease. Blood vessels in the eye begin to leak blood and fluid. Loss of vision can happen very quickly.
Symptoms can include wavy or distorted vision, “blind spots” in vision… dark, blurry areas in the center of vision and diminished or changed color perception. Any of these changes warrant a prompt visit to your physician.
When AMD is diagnosed and treated in its early and intermediate stages, vision loss can often be slowed and the risk of its progression to the wet form reduced. While there are numerous medications and treatments available, treatment has to be aimed at the patient’s specific manifestation of the disease. Seven different forms of the disease exist and no one treatment is effective for every patient.
Years ago, AMD often resulted in legal blindness. However, new treatments have produced much better outcomes. Healthy choices can also help the prevention of developing this disease.
PSA From Deidre Hall About Age Related Macular Degeneration, Shared By The American Academy Of Ophthalmology
Flashes and Floaters
Are you experiencing flashes and floaters in your vision? Vision changes can indicate a serious problem with the tissue that lines the back of the eyeball (retina) optic nerve or blood vessels in the eye. Evaluation by an eye doctor is needed for sudden vision changes, such as:
- Flashes of light (photopsia). Photopsia is brief but recurrent streaks, sparks, or flickers of light, particularly when you move your eyes or head. The flashes of light may be easier to see when you look at a dark background. The brief flashes may occur with retinal detachment.
- Floaters, which are shadows or dark objects that float across your visual field. Sudden development of floaters may be a sign of a retinal tear.
- A dark curtain or veil across part of your visual field may occur with retinal detachment.
- Partial or complete vision loss in one or both eyes could all occur with retinal detachment.
Diabetic Retinopathy
More than 24 million people – eight percent of the population – have diabetes. Diabetes is a form of vascular disease. Elevated levels of blood sugar over a long period of time can result in damage to the eyes blood vessels and retina, impairing vision. If left untreated, the eye’s macula can be damaged.
Diabetic retinopathy can lead to poor vision and even blindness. Most of the time, it gets worse over many years. At first, the blood vessels in the eye get weak. This can lead to blood and other liquids leaking into the retina from the blood vessels. This is called nonproliferative retinopathy. And this is the most common retinopathy. If the fluid leaks into the center of the eye, you may have blurry vision. Most people with nonproliferative retinopathy have no systems.
If blood sugar levels stay high, diabetic retinopathy will keep getting worse. New blood vessels grow on the retina. This may sound good, but these new blood vessels are weak. They can break open very easily, even while sleeping. If they break open, blood can leak into the middle part of the eye in front of the retina and change the vision. This bleeding can also cause scar tissue to form. Sometimes people don’t have symptoms until it is too late to treat them. This is why having eye exams regularly is so important.
When problems are detected early, a simple laser procedure can seal up leaky blood vessels in the eye.
