Detached Retina | Retinal Detachment- Causes Symptoms and Treatment

The light-sensitive retina of the eye is normally attached to the underlying tissue,
but in retinal detachment part of the retina peels away from this tissue.

Retinal detachment usually affects one eye only but, without rapid treatment, can cause partial or total blindness in the affected eye. Retinal detachment is more common in people over the age of 50 and sometimes runs in families. Participating in sports that may lead to a blow to the eye, such as boxing, is a risk factor. Severe shortsightedness is also a risk factor.
Retinal detachment usually begins with a small tear in the retina. Fluid is then able to pass through the hole and separates the retina from the supporting tissues underneath.

Causes

The retina – the light sensitive internal coating – sits about the back of the eye and it is primarily kept in position from liquid within the eye’s stress. The typical reason behind detachment is just a pit within the retina by which the liquid causes and of the eye enters the retina off the rear of the attention. Short-sighted since their retina is finer individuals are at higher threat of openings.

A quick setback towards the mind may also remove the retina which is an established risk of boxing and jumping.

Symptoms of Retinal Detachment

• Flashing lights in the corner of the eye.
• Sudden appearance of a large number of dark spots (floaters) in the field of vision.
• Shadow affecting vision.

Measures

Your doctor can diagnose retinal detachment using an ophthalmoscope, an instrument used to examine the back of the eye. If only a small area of retina has detached, the tear may be sealed by laser surgery, which requires only local anaesthetic. However, if a large area has become detached, microsurgery (see box, right) under a general anaesthetic will be necessary. If treated early, normal vision may be restored, but delayed treatment is less effective.

Treatment – Microsurgery

Microsurgery is a technique that enables surgeons to operate on extremely small and delicate tissues in the body. In microsurgery a binocular microscope is used to view the operating site and surgeons operate with specially adapted small operating instruments.
Microsurgery is often used to operate on tissue such as nerves and blood vessels and on small structures in the eye, middle ear and reproductive system.

For example, microsurgery is regularly used in the repair of detached retinas. It is also used routinely to remove the diseased eye lens of someone with a cataract and replace it with an artificially made lens. In an operation to reattach a severed limb or digit, microsurgery is used to repair severed nerves and blood vessels. Microsurgery may also be used to try to reverse sterilization operations: tubal ligation in females and vasectomy in males.

Microsurgery is usually performed under general anaesthesia, but for some minor
procedures, such as cataract operations, regional or local anaesthesia may be used instead. Since some microsurgical operations take longer than other similar surgical procedures, the time under anaesthesia is longer and this may extend the recovery time from anaesthesia. The risk of infection may also be higher with microsurgery because the operation site is exposed for a relatively long time compared with other procedures.
Microsurgery is usually highly successful for routine procedures such as cataract removal and repairing a detached retina.

In other procedures, the success of microsurgery often depends on the extent to which tissues were damaged initially.