Floaters: It’s Not Your Imagination, You are Seeing Things

Floaters-What Should You Do When They Appear?

They swim and bounce around your field of sight, some times more visible than others. These “floaters” that look like dark cobwebs, specks and lines move as your eyes do and often scatter when you try to focus on them. For most of us, they’re an annoyance. In rare cases, when they’re so numerous they impact vision, surgery may be an option.
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Floaters happen when the vitreous, the gel-like substance that fills about 80 percent of the eye and helps it keep its round shape, slowly shrinks. As it does, it becomes stringy, and the strands cast shadows on the retina. They are usually part of the aging process and an annoyance if you focus on them. They are more common in those who are very nearsighted, diabetic, or who have had a cataract operation. Floaters will settle at the bottom of the eye and are less noticeable but never go away completely. If you suffer migraines, you may see floaters with a different cause. You may experience flashes of light that appear as jagged or wavy lines in your vision, which could last ten to twenty minutes. They are normally caused by a blood vessel spasm in the brain, which is called a migraine. If a headache follows, it’s a migraine headache, without the headache the light flashes are called an ophthalmic migraine. Other, more rare but serious causes of floaters include infection, inflammation, hemorrhage, retinal tears, and injury to the eye. If part of the vitreous pulls fine fibers away from the retina suddenly, many new floaters may appear. This is vitreous detachment, which usually won’t threaten your sight and doesn’t require treatment. A sudden increase in floaters, potentially with light flashes or peripheral vision loss, could be symptoms of a retinal detachment, which occurs when a part of the retina, the eye’s light-sensitive tissue, lifts or is pulled off the back of the eye. Retinal detachment is a serious, emergency condition. If untreated, within two or three days, it may cause permanent visual impairment or blindness in the affected eye. If the number of floaters suddenly increases, you see flashes of light in your peripheral vision, or there’s a loss of peripheral vision, you should contact our office and come in as soon as possible so we can examine your eyes to determine what’s causing the problem. For a few people, floaters are so dense and numerous they significantly affect vision. A vitrectomy, a surgical procedure removing floaters from the vitreous, may be needed. The vitreous gel and its floating debris are removed from the eye and replaced with a salt solution. The vitreous is mostly water so if the procedure goes well you shouldn’t notice the difference (other than the lack of floaters). Most eye surgeons won’t recommend this surgery unless the floaters seriously interfere with vision because it carries significant risks because of possible complications, including retinal detachment, retinal tears, and cataract. If you have questions about floaters or it’s something that you feel has become so serious you think something should be done about them, contact us at 610-437-4988 or fill out our contact form so we can start the conversation and work together to protect your sight and your ability to comfortably live your life. Houman Ahdieh, MD Lehigh Valley Center for Sight https://www.lvcenter4sight.com eyedoc@lvcenter4sight.com

https://www.lvcenter4sight.com/floaters-its-not-your-imagination-you-are-seeing-things/

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