Some fluid may be drained from under your retina.Īn antibiotic ointment may be applied to your eye to help prevent infection. This helps to make sure that your retina stays in place. Your surgeon will place a very small silicone band (buckle) around the outside of your eye like a belt. In most cases, your surgeon will do this with a freezing device that seals the retina to the inner wall of the eye. Your surgeon will use a device to seal your retina back together.

Your surgeon will use a special tool (ophthalmoscope) to view your retina. Your surgeon will expose your eye, making a cut (incision) in the outer layer of your eye. Your eye care provider will give you eye drops to dilate your eye. In this case, your eye care provider will use an injection to make sure you don't feel anything. You will be given a medicine to help you relax. In other cases, you may be awake during the surgery. If this is the case, you will sleep deeply during the surgery.

You may be given medicine (anesthesia) to put you to sleep. The surgery will be done in an operating room. Talk with your eye surgeon about what to expect during your surgery. Ask your eye care provider about the benefits and risks of all your treatment choices. All of these methods can successfully fix a detached retina. If you have a complex retinal detachment, you may also need another surgery called a vitrectomy. This procedure can't treat all types of retinal detachments. This can restore your vision.Įye care providers sometimes treat retinal detachment with a less invasive procedure called pneumatic retinopexy. If you have these symptoms, you may need an emergency surgery to reattach the retina. You might also have light flashes in your eye or a curtain over your field of vision. These floaters can be so dense that they impair your vision. These look like little specks or cobwebs that float in your field of vision. You might have an increase of floaters in your eye. If you have a retinal detachment, you will likely need some sort of surgery. But in rare cases, an eye injury can cause it as well. Most of the time, the retinal detachment happens suddenly on its own.

U.S.Certain factors make it more likely that you will have a retinal detachment.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A regular eye examination is essential for detecting retinal tears at their earliest possible stages. Repairing a tear in one part of the retina does not prevent a tear from developing in another, and those who have had retinal tears should be monitored.

This prevents fluid from traveling through the retinal tear, potentially causing a detachment. Either method of treatment is painless, and is used to seal the retina to the wall of the eye. Treatment of a Retinal TearĪ retinal tear is treated with either a laser or cryotherapy procedure, or both, depending on the size and location of the tear. Diagnosis of a retinal tear is made after a thorough medical eye examination, and the performance of the following diagnostic tests:Įarly detection, and prompt treatment, of a retinal tear can often keep the retina from detaching, preventing permanent damage to the patient's vision. The sooner a retinal tear is diagnosed and treated, the less likely it will develop into a retinal detachment. If floaters or flashes appear suddenly, however, there is cause for concern, and a physician should be consulted. Stress on the retina as the vitreous pulls away can also result in images, such as flashing lights.įloaters, which may appear as dots, circles, lines, clouds or webs, are experienced by about 70 percent of the population, and do not necessarily indicate a retinal tear.

Flashes or floaters in the field of visionįloaters or blocked areas of vision (curtains) may result from a retinal tear because, as the vitreous pulls away from the retina, debris loosens and floats across the field of vision.

Symptoms of a Retinal TearĪlthough retinal tears do not usually cause pain, patients may experience the following symptoms: Anyone who is nearsighted, or has a family history of retinal tears, is at greater risk. In addition to aging, there are other possible causes, including blunt force trauma to the eye and complications of eye surgery, of retinal tears. Without treatment, retinal tears can cause retinal detachment that may result in blindness, so it is important for adults older than 50 to be vigilant about getting regular eye examinations. This separation, known as posterior vitreous detachment (PVD), is a normal part of aging, but it can result in a retinal tear. As a result of the aging process, the vitreous thins and its shape changes, sometimes causing it to pull away from the retina. It is attached to the vitreous, the gel-like substance that gives the eye most of its volume. The retina is a light-sensitive layer of tissue that lines the inner surface of the eye.

Webmd detached retina symptoms