Eye Problems - Symptoms of Posterior Vitreous Detachment

One day about ten years ago I had a disturbing experience. My glasses seemed to be dirty and as much as I tried to clean them I still had the cloudiness.

I thought it was my glasses. But it was my eyes. Here is a full accounting of what happens when the vitreous detaches.

I had woken up that morning with flashes near the sides of my eyes. My peripheral vision as it is known. The flashes were like arcs of light. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought it might be some kind of migraine. It didn’t hurt. So I just ignored it.

I Had A Lot Of Floaters

Throughout that day I had continuous problems cleaning my glasses until I realized, after closer study, that my glasses were very clean and the disturbance was “within” my right eye. As I became aware of this I also realized that the disturbance was actually a bunch of floaters.

Floaters are like hairs moving around your eyeball. I always had a few floaters. Most people do. I could see them when I lay the beach looking up at the sky. Little hair-like strands floating around.

But this time they were practically filling my eyeball. Well maybe not that bad but it sure seemed like it. It became so annoying that I called my ophthalmologist.

He asked me if I had experienced any arcs of light or flashes. “Wow! I did, just this morning,” I replied.

He wanted to examine me immediately. He said he didn’t want me to put it off. I had no idea at the time why he was being so meticulous about having me rush in right away. But I did.

I learned a lot from that experience. And now I’ll share it with you, in laymen’s terms since I am not a doctor and don’t know correct terminology. But this might be a better way to understand it anyway.

When one experiences flashes of light it may mean one of two things…

You might have a detached retina.

The detachment causes debris from pieces of tissue to float around the eye resulting in having more floaters.

If you have a detached retina it can be repaired in most cases if taken care of very quickly. But if you wait, you can lose your sight in that eye. Don’t wait. Rush to your ophthalmologist as soon as you experience flashes.

There is another problem that causes the same symptoms of flashes...

You might have a detached vitreous.

The vitreous is a jelly-like substance filling the eyeball. It’s transparent and you see right through it. As we get older, the vitreous tends to dry out and shrink. As it shrinks it may pull away from the rear of the eye. This is known as a Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD).

The retina covers the rear of your eye. It's like a movie screen where the light is focus on and it's sensitive to light. The retina actually transfers light images to the brain through the optic nerve. So when the vitreous pulls away, a side effect is that the retina sends signals to the brain that simulate arcs of light.

Why The Vitreous Is Pulling Away From Your Retina

People with myopia (near-sightedness) have a greater tendency for a shrinking vitreous to detach and pull away because the eyeball is elongated. That is, there is a longer distance from the lens to the retina.

Far-sighted people have the opposite shape of the eye, being shorter from front to rear. And therefore there's less chance of a shrinking vitreous pulling away.

When the vitreous shrinks, it begins pulling on the retina. It can rip part of the retina off the rear of the eye and this is serious. You need to have the retina repaired, and quickly!

The vitreous is only connected to the retina in three places: All around the border of the retina, in the macula and at the point where the optic nerve connects. The macula is the spot in the retina where we have the most detail and central vision.

What Happens After A Vitreous Detachment?

Since the vitreous doesn’t adhere to the retina in most places, many times when it detaches, it just separates from the rear of the eye. This usually leaves loose cells floating around. These are known as floaters.

If this is all it is, then it's not a serious problem. But since we don’t know which of these two cases is the cause of our flashes it’s important to get it checked out immediately and get the right diagnosis. That’s why my doctor wanted me to run in to see him without delay.

As it turned out in my case, I just had a detached vitreous. My retina was fine. Nothing needed to be done. He told me that the floaters will disturb me less and less as time goes on since the brain gets used to them and “learns” to ignore them. He was right. I can tell I have a lot of floaters if I pay attention to them, but otherwise they don’t bother me anymore. It took about a year to stop being bothered by them.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are other more serious diseases of the vitreous that require more involved repair. Diabetes can cause problems where tiny blood vessels grow into the vitreous. In this case If the vitreous shrinks and pulls away from the retina it can detach the retina. The tearing of these tiny blood vessels can cause bleeding into the vitreous. Although this is rare, it needs to be considered if one is diabetic.

Two years later I had flashes in my left eye and I suspected it was just the vitreous again. But I ran in to see my doctor since it could have been a more serious problem.There really is no way to tell if it's a detached retina instead since the symptoms are similar with those flashes of light. And in really never is any pain involved. There is no feeling of pulling when it happens. So it's best to get it checked out when flashes suddenly occur.

Lucky for me my doctor discovered that it was only a detached vitreous again in that eye too, just as before.

So What If The Retina Is Detaching?

If you do have a detached retina and you get it diagnosed in time, it can be repaired without invasive surgery. It’s done with lasers.

We have wonderful technology today to help with serious diseases of the eye. But they are only as useful as you allow, by having regular checkups with an ophthalmologist.

Copyright © 2010 Glenn Stok

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