Introduction of Retinitis pigmentosa

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is the slow and gradual retina degeneration. Unfortunately, it occurs mainly in young children, whose both eyes may have poor night vision. As the disease progresses, both central vision and peripheral vision fields will be narrowed and blindness is the final consequence. In most cases, people with RP become legally blindness until their 40s and 50s. It is frightening that this disease can cause complete blindness as early as childhood. Night or color vision loss can be detected by certain eye exams and the way to measure peripheral vision extent is a visual field testing.

An explanation of related phenomena

Young children are more probably to suffer retinitis pigmentosa because the disease can be inherited from any of the parents. Even if one of the parents only carries recessive genetic tendencies of retinitis pigmentosa, the child may be born with the disease at a chance of 1%. The reason for poor night vision experienced by retinitis pigmentosa patients is the deterioration of rods, which are responsible for light sensation in dim conditions. Retinitis pigmentosa also affects light sensitive cells in retina, which explains why people with the disease have narrower visual field.

The typical indicative of retinitis pigmentosa

Visual symptoms mentioned above can actually caused by other ocular problems. In other words, they do not definitely signify retinitis pigmentosa. Knowing some of the unique signs of the disease is necessary for diagnosis. The most typical indicative of retinitis pigmentosa is the mottling of the retinal pigment epithelium with black bone-spicule pigmentation. Moreover, there are some other characteristics that indicate the development of retinitis pigmentosa, e.g. waxy pallor of the optic nerve head, cystic macular edema and cellophane maculopathy.

Some effective remedies

Treatments for retinitis pigmentosa such as artificial retina are still under researches. There are only several remedies that are possibly effective. Some eye experts recommend vitamin A for delaying or slowing down vision loss. Occupational therapy is considered helpful in adjusting to vision decline. Low vision devices can magnify and illuminate objects for people with retinitis pigmentosa.