TREATED RETINAL TEAR

Below is a picture of a retinal tear, surrounded by laser scars to keep it from becoming a detachment.

MACULAR SCAR

The macula is the area of the retina that serves our central vision. This patient has a scar in the center of his left macula (small whitish area in the center of the top picture). The bottom shows his normal right eye macula. Surprisingly, this patient see's 20/20. This kind of scar can come from sun starring when a child. Or there may be other causes. It is unlikely to cause problems in the future for this patient.

CATARACTS

This is a patient with nuclear cataract in each eye, significant enough to decrease vision to 20/70 best corrected. The top photo is of a posterior capsular cataract in the right eye, that goes along with the nuclear cataract. The left eye has no posterior cataract.

RECURRENT CORNEAL EROSION

This patient presented complaining of pain when he woke up one morning. He has also had pain in the eye a couple afternoons. On examination he has this small irregularity just below the pupil on the cornea. This irregularity causes adhesion between the lid and the cornea during sleep and then when waking up the outer protective cells of the cornea come off with the lid, exposing the unprotected layers beneath.

Treatment is usually artificial tears to start with. If that is not enough, then a special ointment at bedtime helps. If that doesn't help, then surgery to flatten the area of the cornea is indicated.

How does the irregularity start to begin with? It can occur from a genetic disorder that causes an irregular corneal surface, or from scarring from a previous injury, or a focal scar from a previous herpes simplex virus infection.

POSTERIOR SUBCAPSULAR CATARACT

This is an opacity on the back of the lens of the eye.

PIGMENTARY DISPERSION

This photo is of what we call "Kruckenburg's Spindle". It's the pigment cells on the back surface of the cornea. It occurs because zonules from the lens of the eye (behind the iris), rub up against the back surface of the iris, and slough off the dark pigment cells, which then float to the front of the eye and attach to the cornea. The cells also go in the "angle" of the eye where fluid drains. If the drain becomes too clogged up, it can cause pressure to rise, increasing the risk for glaucoma (damage to the optic never because of that pressure).

MACULA ON RETINAL DETACHMENT

This is a picture of a retinal detachment. You can see the optic nerve in the center of the photo, but it's hazy for two reasons. First I focused the camera more forward on the detached retina (above), and there's blood in the eye. The detachment is the billowing, whitish membrane you see above. Normally the retina is attached to the back of the eye. There is no vision wherever the retina detaches off the back of the eye. This patient has a "macula-on" detachment which means, if we get this repaired soon enough, he should have most, if not all his central vision restored.