LATTICE DEGENERATION

These two images are or lattice degeneration. It was difficult to get a great photo of it because of the movements in the eyes when a patient looks in extreme gaze, and also because this patient was wearing a contact lens and I was looking half through the non-optical portion of the lens.

Lattice degeneration occurs when there's thinning of the peripheral retina. Patients will often see flashes of light as this patient did. Oftentimes holes can develop within or near lattice degeneration. This patient was educated about the symptoms of retinal tears or a detachment and should be dilated on a yearly basis.

HEALING CORNEAL ABRASION

This is the same patient with the corneal abrasion below, but a couple days after treatment. Treatment consisted of topical antibiotic and high oxygen permeable bandage contact lens.

UNUSUAL CORNEAL ABRASION

This patient woke up with pain the eye a few days ago and now doesn't feel better. On examination it looked like an abrasion that was trying to re-epithelialize, but was unable to completely do it because of the constant motion of the eyelid across it. So I put a bandage lens on it and used Vigamox every four hours. We'll follow-up with him daily until I see progress.

FUCH'S CORNEAL DYSTROPHY

The small granules in this photo are "guttata", little excrescences or damaged cells on the endothelial layer of the cornea. When these are damaged it can cause problems in maintaining the proper amount of fluid, and therefore thickness and clearnness of the cornea.

EPIPHORA

This is the same patient below with conjunctivochalasis. Fluorescein dye was placed in the eye and it causes the tears to fluoresce when a blue light is shined on it. You can see how the tears are leaking onto the corner of the face. This chronic leaking can cause irritation and inflammation of the skin at the corner. In this case the patient was given some as needed anti-inflammatory drop, called Alrex, when the skin is irritated, and while we are working on a solution to the underlying problem.

CONJUNCTIVOCHALASIS

While this may appear as excessive tears, it's actually redundant conjunctiva. The eyeball is covered with a layer of clear, moveable tissue called the conjunctiva. It's like Saran Wrap over the eye. If fluid gets under that layer or the conjunctiva is redundant, it can cause it to bunch up at the lower lid. This is called conjunctivochalasis. Because it makes less room for the tears and can often plug up the drainage of tears, the patient can complain of excessive tears or tears falling out onto the face, as this patient did. Treatment may be a snip procedure at the drainage opening to allow tears to drain more, but only after a good investigation to determine the underlying cause is undertaken. In this case the patient was on Visine every day for a long time and this has caused chonic dilated blood vessels that may leak serum under the conjunctiva. Cold turkey was indicated for the Visine "addiction", warning that it might get a little worse before it gets better.

INGROWN EYELASH

This is an ingrown lash from a patient. The patient complained of irritation on the left eyelid. It was taken out much like an epilation and should cause no ill effects.