Retinal Diseases
The retina is a thin, light-sensitive layer of tissue lining the back of the eye. Like the film in a camera, it captures incoming light and converts it into electrical signals that are transmitted via the optic nerve to the brain, where the image is processed. Damage to the retina — from any cause — can result in significant, and sometimes irreversible, visual impairment.
Common retinal conditions
Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of preventable blindness in working-age adults. Caused by damage to the tiny blood vessels of the retina in people with diabetes, it ranges from mild background changes to severe proliferative disease with new vessel formation and vitreous haemorrhage. Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects the central retina (macula) and is the most common cause of severe visual loss in people over 60 — it exists in "dry" (atrophic) and "wet" (neovascular) forms, the latter causing more rapid vision loss. Retinal detachment occurs when the retina separates from its supporting layers — it is a surgical emergency. Retinal vein and artery occlusions are vascular events that can cause sudden, often severe visual loss. Inherited retinal dystrophies, including retinitis pigmentosa, cause progressive loss of peripheral and later central vision.
Symptoms
Warning symptoms include sudden loss of vision (partial or complete), new onset of floaters (dark spots or strands moving across the visual field), flashing lights (photopsia), a dark curtain or shadow encroaching from the periphery of vision, and distortion or blurring of central vision (a symptom of macular pathology). Any sudden change in vision should be treated as an ophthalmic emergency.
Diagnosis
Retinal assessment relies on dilated fundus examination, optical coherence tomography (OCT — which provides cross-sectional imaging of the retinal layers at microscopic resolution), fundus photography, and fluorescein or indocyanine green angiography (which visualises retinal and choroidal blood vessels).
Choosing where to be treated
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