Retina detachment causes and treatments

A normal functioning retina should be supported by related tissues. Once the retina is separated from its supportive tissues, retinal detachment occurs, which is dangerous for your vision. Retinal detachment can gradually or suddenly affect one’s normal vision, since the retina can detach slowly or in a short time.

Sight-threatening retinal detachment has some obvious symptoms

Although no pain will be aroused, retinal detachment patients do have some obvious symptoms such as sensation of spots, floaters or flashes of light. Other signs of retinal detachment include blurriness, poor vision and shadow appearance in your visual field. Retinal detachment is sight-threatening and may result in permanent vision loss, so that immediate treatment from your eye doctor is essential for vision wellness when you realize any of these signs.

A wide variety of factors may contribute to retinal detachment

Retinal detachment can result from quite a few reasons. Heavy nearsighted people are more susceptible to retinal detachment, because they have longer eyeballs and thinner retinas. Some people may suffer from the disease from a LASIK surgery performed for myopia or hyperopia correction, although at an extremely low rate. Injury to the eye or face, cataract surgery, tumor, diabetes and sickle cell disease can also be potential causes. Diabetic retinopathy may push the retina away from its surrounding tissues as well.

How to diagnose retinal detachment

It is possible for patients to realize obvious signs of retinal detachment. For instance, visible spots or flashes will suddenly appear in the vision field, which indicates that the eye’s vitreous is separating and possibly tearing the retina. Another obvious sign is the feeling of wavy or watery vision. At an early stage, only peripheral vision is affected. Central vision gets blurry only as the retina detaches seriously. Even though this ocular disease involves no pain and is invisible from the outside of the eye, it sends clear signals. Of course, visiting an ophthalmologist is the ultimate step for a final diagnosis.

Treatment via surgical reattachment

For better vision recovery, a detached retina must be reattached back to its supportive network as soon as possible. Treatments for retinal detachment contain several procedures. Aiming at controlling detached retina, these surgeries involve silicone oil or gas bubble injection that helps keep the detached retina in place. A further step is reattachment. Laser photocoagulation and cryotherapy can be used to seal off leaking blood vessels and control new blood vessel growth.