Eye Disease | Anne Arundel Eye Center

Retinal Detachment: Definition, Symptoms, and Treatment

December 1, 2018 by Anne Arundel Eye Center 1 Comment

A retinal detachment refers to a separation of the retina – the light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye – from its supporting layers. This serious medical condition is typically caused by trauma, diabetes or an inflammatory disorder.

Symptoms of Retinal Detachment

• Flashes of light (Especially in peripheral vision)

• Blurred/blurry vision

• Floaters in the eye. Also referred to as shadows or spots

• Blindness in a portion of the visual field

The sudden and dramatic appearance of these symptoms is a strong indication that the retina is either tearing or detaching. If you feel you may be experiencing any of the above symptoms, schedule an appointment with your eye doctor immediately. Any sudden change in your vision is a serious medical condition that requires prompt medical attention from your optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Treatment of Retinal Detachment

Most cases of retinal detachment require one of the following surgeries.

• Freezing (cryopexy): The application of intense cold to the area with an ice probe to form a scar, which holds the retina in place.

• Laser Surgery (photocoagulation): This is used to seal the tears or holes in the retina.

• Pneumatic Retinopexy: The placing of a gas bubble in the eye to help the retina float back into place. Then a laser is used to fix the retina in place.

More extensive cases require more invasive procedures, including:

• Scleral Buckle: This is done to indent the wall of the eye, relieving the tugging of the vitreous on the retina.

• Vitrectomy: This is done to remove gel or scar tissue that may be pulling on the retina.

If you have any questions about what you have just read or if you would like to learn more about your various treatment options, please contact board certified ophthalmologist Samuel Boles and the eye care specialists at Anne Arundel Eye Center by calling 410-224-2010.

Led by Dr. Boles, the Anne Arundel Eye Center offers comprehensive specialized ophthalmic exams as well as diagnostic pre and post-surgical eye care. Specializing in glaucoma and cataracts, Dr. Boles has helped restore and preserve thousands of patients’ vision.

For more eye care advice and information, please take a look at our previous blog posts.

Sources:

Retinal Detachment

Flashers and Floaters in the Eye: What are They and What do They Mean?

November 22, 2018 by Anne Arundel Eye Center Leave a Comment

As we age, the eye’s gel-like vitreous begins to dissolve and liquefy, creating a watery center. Occasionally some un-dissolved vitreous particles will float around the now watery center, appearing as spots or what we refer to as floaters.

Floaters in the eye are a fairly common, harmless apparition that will generally fade away in time. Yet, while these floaters are typically common, they can be the first signs of a more serious medical condition, such as retinal detachment.

If you ever see a shower of floaters (spots) accompanied by flashes of light (photopsia), then you should seek immediate medical attention. The sudden and dramatic appearance of these symptoms could indicate that the retina is either tearing or detaching.

Retinal detachments and retinal tears are both emergency conditions that require immediate medical attention. An eye surgeon must reattach or repair the retina to prevent permanent vision loss from occurring.

So if you see floaters in your eye, schedule an appointment with your eye doctor – optometrist or ophthalmologist – at your earliest convenience. Any change in your sight is a serious medical condition that requires prompt attention. If these symptoms appear rapidly and include flashes of light, call your eye doctor right away.

If you have any questions about what you have just read, please contact board certified ophthalmologist Samuel Boles and the eye care specialists at Anne Arundel Eye Center by calling 410-224-2010.

For more eye care advice and information, please take a look at our previous blog posts.

Sources:

Eye Floaters, Flashes and Spots

Corneal Disease: Explanation, Symptoms, and Treatment

October 10, 2017 by Anne Arundel Eye Center 1 Comment

Your cornea – the clear, protective outer layer of the eye – not only protects your eye from dirt and germs, but also plays a key role in your vision. As light enters the eye, it is focused or refracted by the shape of the cornea. If your cornea sustains damage through disease, infection or injury, the resulting scar tissue can interfere with your vision by blocking or distorting light as it enters your eye.

There are several different conditions including infections, degenerations and other disorders that affect the cornea. These include:

Astigmatism: Caused by an irregularly shaped cornea, astigmatism is a refractive error in which the eye has trouble focusing light. Astigmatism is the most common form of corneal problem. Treatment typically involves the use of glasses or contacts.

Corneal Abrasion: Caused by trauma to the eye, a corneal abrasion refers to a scratch on the outer layer of the eye. It is the second most common form of corneal distress. Treatment traditionally involves patching of the eye, though newer bandage contact lenses are beginning to see more use. These allow people to stay functional during the healing process.

Keratits: This form of corneal disease is an inflammation of the cornea that occurs with viral, bacteria or fungal infection. Symptoms of keratitis include severe eye pain, reduced visual clarity, and discharge.

Ocular Herpes (Herpes of the Eye): Similar to cold sores on the lip, this reoccurring viral infection produces sores on the surface of the cornea that, in time, can spread deeper into the cornea and eye. There is no cure for ocular herpes, but it can often be controlled with the use of antiviral drugs. You can also try using Valtrex. Valtrex (Valacyclovir) is an antiviral medication used to treat infections caused by certain viruses. It helps the body fight infection by slowing the growth and spread of the herpes virus. It is used to treat shingles (caused by herpes zoster), genital herpes, and cold sores around the mouth. Valtrex is also a treatment for cold sores in children over the age of 12 years old and as a chickenpox medication in children who are over the age of 2 years. Read the full article here: anti-viral-meds.com

Herpes Zoster (Shingles): This is actually a recurrence of the chickenpox virus, since most of us have already had the disease. Symptoms of Herpes Zoster include blisters or lesions on the cornea, fever, and pain from inflamed nerve fibers.

Corneal Dystrophies

There are over 20 of these diseases that cause structural problems with the cornea. The most common forms include:

Keratoconus: This is a progressive disease in which the cornea thins and even changes shape, creating either mild or severe distortion (astigmatism) and nearsightedness (myopia).

Map-Dot-Fingerprint Dystrophy: As the basement membrane of the epithelium of the cornea grows irregularly, abnormalities resembling maps, dots and fingerprints form in the cornea. While this form of corneal disease is mostly painless and causes no vision loss, epithelial erosion may occur, exposing the nerves lining the cornea and causing severe eye pain.

Fuchs’ Dystrophy: Seemingly happening for no apparent reason – although you may have a genetic predisposition to the disease – Fuch’s Dystrophy involves the gradual deterioration of endothelial cells. As these cells thin, they can no longer remove water from the corneal stroma. This causes the stroma to swell and distort vision.

Lattice Dystrophy: This disease is characterized by the presence of abnormal protein fibers throughout the stroma. This can result in the clouding of the cornea and reduced vision and in rare cases, epithelial erosion.

Symptoms of Corneal Disease

The cornea has the ability to quickly repair itself after most injuries or diseases. However, more serious situations may result in a much more prolonged healing process. If this is the case, the following symptoms should serve as an immediate indicator of a deeper medical issue:

Eye pain
Blurred/blurry vision
Tearing
Redness
Extreme sensitivity to light
Corneal scarring

If you feel you may be experiencing any of these symptoms, schedule an appointment with your eye doctor immediately. Any sudden change in your vision is a serious medical condition that requires prompt medical attention from your optometrist or ophthalmologist.

Although corneal disease resulting from hereditary factors cannot be prevented, infectious corneal disease caused from bacteria and viruses can be avoided. You should never share eye makeup, contact solution, lens cases, and eye drops with anyone as this may increase the risk of infection.

However, if you do contract some form of corneal disease, vision can be preserved through early detection and treatment. This is just another reason why regular eye exams are so important.

If you have any questions about what you have just read, please contact board certified ophthalmologist Samuel Boles and the eye care specialists at Anne Arundel Eye Center by calling 410-224-2010.

Led by Dr. Boles, the Anne Arundel Eye Center offers complete ophthalmic exams as well as diagnostic pre and post-surgical eye care. Specializing in glaucoma and cataracts, Dr. Boles has helped restore and preserve thousands of patients’ vision.

For more eye care advice and information, please take a look at our previous blog posts.

Sources:

Your Cornea: Conditions, Symptoms and Treatments

Gene Therapy may help with Choroideremia, a Rare Degenerative Eye Disease

January 22, 2014 by Anne Arundel Eye Center Leave a Comment

An interesting article popped up on WebMD last week: “Gene Therapy May Help Against Rare Blinding Disease.” According to a clinical trial published in The Lancet, gene therapy helped improve vision in six male patients with Choroideremia, a rare degenerative eye disease. This was especially true for two patients with advanced choroideremia.

“In truth, we did not expect to see such dramatic improvements in visual acuity and so we contacted both patients’ home opticians to get current and historical data on their vision in former years, long before the gene therapy trial started,” said lead author Robert MacLaren of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford. “These readings confirmed exactly what we had seen in our study and provided an independent verification.”

What is Choroideremia?

Choroideremia causes the pigment cells in the retina to die off, shrinking the retina and reducing vision over time. This rare eye disease is caused by defects in the CHM gene on the X chromosome. Because of this, most patients with the choroideremia are male.

This rare degenerative eye disease affects about one in every 50,000 people.

Gene Therapy may help with Choroideremia

Dr. Mark Fromer, an ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, believes gene therapy is the future of choroideremia treatment. Gene therapy could be used to prevent blindness by fixing defective genes in patients before the eye disease can take root. This, Dr. Fromer believes, is true for choroideremia as well as other eye diseases, such as macular degeneration (AMD) or retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

The main Message is one of hope for the future. If this therapy leads to improved diagnoses and treatment of AMDor RP, this would be a great benefit for many millions of patients.

“This is something that we’ve been trying to accomplish for years in retinal science, and it’s very encouraging,” said Fromer. “We’ll go from putting a Band-Aid on the lesion to preventing it from happening. This is a new pathway to fix things before they get broken.”

Of course, the key is early detection. This is why it is so important to have your eyes examined regularly. The American Optometric Association (AOA) recommends that adults, ages 18-60, have their eyes examined every two years, while adults older than 60 have their eyes examined annually.

Early detection means early and more effective treatment.

If you have any questions about how Gene Therapy may help with Choroideremia, a Rare Degenerative Eye Disease, or wish to schedule an appointment with Anne Arundel Eye Center, please contact board certified ophthalmologist Dr. Samuel Boles, Dr. Corinne Casey, and the eye care specialists here at AAEC by calling 410-224-2010 or visiting AnneArundelEyeCenter.com today. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube as well!

For more eye care advice and information, please take a look at our previous blog posts.

Sources:

Gene Therapy May Help Against Rare Blinding Disease

Annapolis Eye Doctor: Is the Eyelid Crusty & Swollen? It may be Blepharitis

April 1, 2013 by Anne Arundel Eye Center Leave a Comment

Have you noticed that your eyelid has become slightly swollen, red, and crusty? You may be suffering from a common eye condition known as Blepharitis. This common inflammation of the eyelid is often caused by excess bacteria growth, blockage of the eyelid’s oil glands, and occasionally allergies.

Symptoms of Blepharitis Include:

Burning
Sensitivity to light
Redness
Swelling
Blurry vision
Dry eyes
Excessive Tearing
Crusty Debris
Feeling like something is in your eye
Styes, bumps on the eyelid that are raised and painful to the touch

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, schedule an appointment with your eye doctor at your earliest convenience. While Blepharitis cannot be cured, it can be treated and controlled with simple eyelid hygiene techniques that are easy to learn and follow.

If left untreated, Blepharitis can lead to more serious issues, such as scarring or injury to the eye’s tissue.

Blepharitis Treatment

Wet a clean washcloth with very warm water and place it over the closed eyelid for five minutes to help soften the clogged oil glands and loosen crusty debris that has collected on the lashes.
Using the washcloth, apply a diluted solution of 50% baby shampoo or mild soap to the affected area.
Use the washcloth with baby shampoo or Ocusoft Lid scrub pads to clean the eyelid margin. You want to scrub from side to side, not up and down. Make sure you get the lid margin (where your lashes are) while being careful not the scratch the eye itself.
Rinse the affected area with a clean, warm, wet washcloth and pat dry.
Take your fingertip and ‘roll’ your finger from the cheekbone up to the lid margin, and from the brow down to the lid margin. This should be done multiple times in order to cover the whole margin of both eyes. Please ensure the pressure is firm. Don’t hurt yourself, but don’t be afraid to apply a firm, gentle pressure.

If you are in the early stages of Blepharitis treatment, avoid using eye makeup. This may help prevent further irritation.

To learn more about the Blepharitis, please contact Board Certified Ophthalmologist Dr. Boles, consultative optometrists Dr. Nathan Frank and Dr. Corinne Casey, and the eye care specialists at Anne Arundel Eye Center by calling 410-224-2010 or click here to visit AnneArundelEyeCenter.com. Staffed by caring and knowledgeable professionals, our state-of-the-art treatment center is dedicated to making the best eye care accessible to everyone.

For more eye care advice and information, please take a look at our previous blog posts.

You can also follow Anne Arundel Eye Center on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube as well!

Source:

Eye Health and Blepharitis WebMD