Although retinal illnesses vary greatly, the majority of them generate visual symptoms. Any area of your retina, a thin layer of tissue on the inside rear wall of your eye, might be affected by retinal disorders.
Millions of light-sensitive cells (rods and cones) and other nerve cells in the retina receive and organize visual information. This information is sent to your brain via your retina via your optic nerve, allowing you to see.
Certain retinal problems can be treated. Depending on your condition, therapy aims may include stopping or slowing the illness as well as preserving, improving, or restoring your vision. Some retinal illnesses, if left untreated, can result in significant vision loss or blindness.
WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF RETINAL DISEASE?
The following are examples of common retinal illnesses and conditions:
- Retinal tear: A retinal tear happens when the clear, gel-like material in the center of your eye (vitreous) shrinks and exerts enough traction on the thin layer of tissue lining the back of your eye (retina) to produce a tear in the tissue. It is frequently followed by the emergence of abrupt symptoms such as floaters and flashing lights.
- Diabetic retinopathy: The small blood vessels (capillaries) in the back of your eye might weaken and leak fluid into and behind the retina if you have diabetes. This causes the retina to enlarge, which may cause your eyesight to blur or distort. Alternatively, you may grow new, aberrant capillaries that rupture and bleed. This also makes your eyesight worse.
- Macular hole: A macular hole is a tiny hole in the retina's center at the rear of your eye (macula). The hole might form as a result of aberrant traction between the retina and the vitreous, or it can form as a result of an eye injury.
- Retinitis pigmentosa: Retinitis pigmentosa is a degenerative hereditary illness. It gradually deteriorates the retina, resulting in night and side vision loss.
- Epiretinal membrane: The epiretinal membrane is a fragile tissue-like scar or membrane that lies on top of the retina and resembles crinkled cellophane. This membrane presses up on the retina, causing visual distortion. Objects could seem blurry or crooked.
- Retinal detachment: The presence of fluid beneath the retina indicates a retinal detachment. When fluid travels through a retinal tear, the retina lifts away from the underlying tissue layers.
- Macular degeneration: The center of your retina begins to degenerate in macular degeneration. Symptoms include impaired central vision and a blind spot in the middle of the visual field. Wet macular degeneration and dry macular degeneration are the two forms. Many people will experience the dry form initially, followed by the moist form in one or both eyes.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF RETINAL DISEASE?
Many retinal illnesses have certain symptoms in common. These might include:
- Observing floating particles or cobwebs
- Vision that is blurred or distorted (straight lines seem wavy)
- Side vision deficiencies
- Blindness
To detect them, you may need to try gazing with each eye separately.
WHAT ARE THE RISK FACTORS FOR RETINAL DISEASES?
Some risk factors for retinal disorders include:
- Aging
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Diabetes and other disorders
- Eye injury
- A history of retinal diseases in the family
HOW ARE RETINAL DISEASES DIAGNOSED?
Your ophthalmologist will do a complete eye exam and search for abnormalities anywhere in the eye to make a diagnosis.
To assess the location and degree of the illness, the following tests may be performed:
- Amsler grid test: An Amsler grid may be used by your doctor to assess the sharpness of your central vision. He or she will inquire if the grid lines appear faded, broken, or distorted, and will take note of where the distortion occurs on the grid to determine the amount of retinal damage. If you have macular degeneration, he or she may also instruct you to do this test at home to self-monitor your health.
- Optical coherence tomography (OCT): This test is an effective tool for taking accurate pictures of the retina to detect epiretinal membranes, macular holes, and macular swelling (edema), to monitor the progression of age-related wet macular degeneration, and to assess therapy responses.
- Fluorescein angiography: A dye is used in this test to make blood vessels in the retina visible under a particular light. This allows for the precise identification of closed blood vessels, leaky blood vessels, new aberrant blood vessels, and subtle changes in the rear of the eye.
- Indocyanine green angiography: This test employs a dye that glows when exposed to infrared light. The pictures produced reveal retinal blood vessels as well as deeper, more difficult-to-see blood vessels beneath the retina in a region known as the choroid.
- Fundus autofluorescence (FAF): FAF may be used to track the progression of retinal illnesses such as macular degeneration. FAF highlights a retinal pigment (lipofuscin) that rises with retinal injury or malfunction.
- Ultrasound: Ultrasonography (high-frequency sound waves) are used in this examination to help visualize the retina and other structures in the eye. It can also detect certain tissue properties that aid in the identification and treatment of eye cancers.
- CT and MRI: In rare cases, these imaging technologies can be utilized to aid in the diagnosis of eye injuries or malignancies.
WHAT ARE THE TREATMENTS FOR RETINAL DISEASES?
The primary aims of therapy are to halt or delay disease development and to preserve, improve, or restore eyesight. Damage that has already happened in many situations cannot be reversed, thus early discovery is critical. Your doctor will consult with you to identify the best course of action.
The treatment of retinal illness can be complicated and at times urgent. Among the options are:
- Making use of a laser: A retinal tear or hole can be repaired using laser surgery. A laser is used by your surgeon to heat microscopic pinpoints on the retina. Scarring results, which generally binds (welds) the retina to the underlying tissue. Immediate laser treatment of a fresh retinal tear can reduce the likelihood of it leading to a retinal detachment.
- Freezing: Cryopexy is a procedure in which your surgeon uses a freezing probe to cure a retinal tear on the outside of the eye. Intense cold penetrates the eye and freezes the retina. Later, the treated region will scar, securing the retina to the eye wall.
- Introducing air or gas into your eye: Pneumatic retinopexy is a procedure used to assist treat some kinds of retinal detachment. It may be used with cryopexy or laser photocoagulation.
- Shrinking abnormal blood vessels: Your doctor may employ scatter laser photocoagulation to shrink aberrant new blood vessels that are bleeding or threaten to hemorrhage into the eye. Diabetic retinopathy patients may benefit from this therapy. Extensive usage of this medication may result in side (peripheral) or night vision loss.
- Removing and replacing the fluid from the eye: Your surgeon will remove the gel-like fluid that fills the interior of your eye during this surgery, known as vitrectomy (vitreous). He or she then infuses the area with air, gas, or liquid.
If bleeding or inflammation obscures the surgeon's view of the retina, a vitrectomy may be performed. This procedure might be used to treat persons who have a retinal tear, diabetic retinopathy, a macular hole, epiretinal membrane, an infection, ocular trauma, or a retinal detachment.
- Injecting medication into the eye: Your doctor may advise you to inject medicine into the vitreous of your eye. This method may be useful in treating persons who have wet macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, or damaged blood vessels in the eye.
- Making an indentation on the surface of your eye: Scleral buckling surgery is done to correct a retinal detachment. A little piece of silicone material is sewn to the outer surface of the eye by your surgeon (sclera). This indents the sclera, relieving part of the stress exerted by the vitreous on the retina, and reattaches the retina. This method can be used with other therapies.
- Putting in a retinal prosthesis: Patients who experience significant vision loss or blindness as a result of a hereditary retinal condition may require surgery. In the retina, a small electrode chip receives input from a video camera on a pair of eyeglasses. The electrode detects and transmits visual information that the injured retina is unable to process.