The vitreous gel is inside the eye and in its posterior portion. It is a mobile structure attached intimately to the retina, blood vessels and optic nerve, formed largely of collagen and function to provide transparency for proper reception of images, as well as the correct support to keep the eye as usual.
This gel can be detached partially or completely from its adhesion to retina in certain activities such as: violent eye movements, traumatisms, an important effort or having a certain predisposition, as occurs in myopic patients.
This condition is called “Posterior Vitreous Detachment”, and the patient can perceive certain signs and symptoms considered alarming, such as:
1.-Vision of flying flies or “myodesopsies”. The patient refers to vision as small spots or dark spiders that move in their visual field or when moving the eye, causing them great discomfort.
- Intermittent-Flashes, that are a side effect to retinal traction originating this gel.
3.-Feeling of a fixed shadow in a part of the patient’s visual field. It may be an initial retinal tear, which causes a spot corresponding to the detached retina area.
When any of these symptoms occur, it is very important to go quickly to the ophthalmologist to make a proper examination of the peripheral retina dilating the pupil in the medical consultation.
In this exploration you can find a vitreous gel detachment without a retina affectation, so you must avoid making efforts and will have a follow–up in month or month and a half.
On the other hand you can detect a retinal tear, If it is not treated, it will cause a retinal detachment , so if this is the case we usually treat and fix the tissue around the tear with laser treatment urgently.
And thirdly, the patient may have visual deficits in addition to all the previous warning signs, and when exploring we find a retinal tear.
This last situation is an emergency and should be scheduled in the shortest possible time, an eye surgery using a technique called pars plana vitrectomy.
If not perform any surgery, would eventually lead to blindness for the patient, and the visual prognosis of a retinal detachment it is much worse the longer time passes between diagnosis and treatment.
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