Vitrectomy For Floaters
If you have experienced eye problem such as floaters, speak to our eye clinic to learn how this condition can be treated. Floaters result from aging changes in the vitreous gel. Such changes occur prematurely if you are short-sighted or have had inflammation or bleeding in the eye. When the normal transparent jelly (vitreous) that fills the back of the eye contains opacities, they cast shadows on the retina, which are seen as strands or spots, or cobwebs, or insect-like images that drift across the vision. These are floaters, sometimes called muscae volanties or flitting flies. Most adults will notice some mild floaters in certain lighting conditions, especially in bright light or when looking at a white background.
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What are the treatment options?
- Do Nothing
- YAG Laser
- Vitrectomy Surgery
This is the normal recommendation for most patients who are able to learn to live with the symptoms. Floaters clear on their own without laser eye treatment almost all of the time. Even patients with persistent floaters usually adjust to them. There is a small group of patients with sheet like floaters and veils that affect their visual function and do not clear even after waiting over a year. In this situation, it is acceptable to consider vitrectomy surgery. Vitrectomy surgery does carry a risk of retinal detachment, infection and bleeding. So the risk of eye surgery has to be balanced with the potential benefit.
If a large floater bothers you it can be broken into smaller ones that often move to parts of the eye where they are not so noticeable. The risks are minimal.
This procedure removes the floater surgically and may be appropriate if it severely affects your vision and makes life intolerable, or if your job makes floaters dangerous (e.g. if you are a bus driver).
A 23-gauge vitrectomy operation can be performed under topical or local anesthetic and takes about two hours. The eye is held open with a speculum and a small incision is made into the eye through which the vitreous gel (containing the floaters) is suctioned out of the eye. The eye is then filled with a gas bubble which will eventually dissolve on its own and be replaced by the body’s own fluids. As the gas bubble reduces in size there can be many benign symptoms such as wobbly objects in the lower part of the vision, variable vision for reading depending on head position and sometimes seeing more than one bubble as it breaks up. These symptoms all disappear once the bubble has disappeared. Speak to our eye care clinic for more information on treatment options for this condition.
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