Our eye works very much like a camera. Just like a camera, our eyes have a clear glass window at the front (our cornea), the aperture (our pupil), the focusing lens (our crystalline lens) and the film (our retina). The retina is the house of our photoreceptors, the very cells responsible for the creation of images which are then transmitted to our brain. That makes the retina the most critical aspect of our eye that we should aim to preserve for as long as we can.
With age, just as our body degenerates, our eyes also show aging or degenerative changes in different forms, such as cataract, glaucoma, dry eyes, droopy eyelids, etc. Unknown to many, our retina is susceptible to retinal degeneration in many different forms too. Let’s briefly look at the different types or retinal degeneration and begin to understand how we can prevent or treat them.
Did you know that having myopia or short-sightedness is a risk factor for retinal degeneration later in life? Myopia, which is typically due to an elongation of the eyeball, leads to stretching and thinning of our retina. Depending on the severity of the myopia (how high the degree of short-sightedness), our retina may be affected centrally or peripherally.
An Epiretinal Membrane is a fibrous tissue overgrowth that occurs on the internal surface of the retina, overlying the central macula. Very often, it leads to traction and wrinkling of the retina which leads to decreased vision and metamorphopsia.
A Macular Hole, as the term suggests, is a hole which forms at the central macula. It results in decreased vision centrally or a gap in the central vision. It forms due to over-stretching of the retina (in Myopia) or too much traction from the vitreous gel centrally.
Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) affects the elderly due to degenerative changes that occur in the central macula. Risk Factors for AMD include genetic predisposition (history of family members with AMD), smoking history, hypertension, high cholesterol, and poor nutrition. There are 2 forms of AMD: Dry AMD and Wet AMD.
Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy (PCV) is thought to be a variant of AMD that occurs in the slightly younger middle-aged adults. It is characterised by retinal bleeding from ‘polypoidal-like’ abnormal choroidal vessels. Diagnosis is less straightforward and requires specialised equipment that is readily available at our clinic.
Central Serous Chorioretinopathy (CSCR or CSR) occurs in young adults who complain of central blurring of vision. At the early stage, there is a small area of leakage of fluid (or water bubble) underneath the retina at the macula region.
People with prolonged diabetes mellitus are at risk of diabetic eye changes such as retinal microvascular bleeding and leakage. These changes manifest themselves as bleeding spots in the retina and macular swelling. Both diabetic bleeding and macular swelling can be averted by either eye injections or eye lasers depending on the severity.
Did you know that the blood vessels in the eye could be occluded (or obstructed), similar to what occurs in a stroke? In other words, our eye may suffer a ‘stroke’ if the blood vessels are blocked, especially in the case of atherosclerosis, hypertension and high cholesterol.
There are many various other retinopathies: Ischemic Retinopathies, Inflammatory Retinopathies, Infective Retinopathies, White-dot Syndromes, Autoimmune Retinopathies, Toxic Retinopathies and Hereditary Retinopathies. Differentiating between these diagnoses are often times tricky.
