Vitreoretinal and Laser Surgery, Pharmacologic Retinal Treatment

Laser

Laser treatments are performed in each office on a daily basis for a variety of retinal conditions

Lasers emit a very bright beam of light that is focused on the retina to treat a variety of conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, branch and central retinal vein occlusions, macular degeneration and retinal tears.  The treatments only take a few minutes and may be performed with anesthetic eye drops and often with a contact lens.  The laser light is quite bright and treatment may require a few spots or many hundreds of spots depending on the condition. Vision is usually blurred for just a few moments from the bright light similar to a flash bulb exposure. If a contact lens was placed in the eye, the lubricating solution used to make contact and prevent scratching the cornea will be washed out.  The eye should be back to the pretreatment state by the next day when the dilating drops wear off.

laser treatment
Laser treatments are commonly performed in the office for: -diabetic retinopathy -prevention of retinal detachment -branch and central retinal vein occlusion -macroaneurysms -retinal vascular abnormalities

Conditions commonly treated with Laser

  • Diabetic Retinopathy
  • Macular Degeneration
  • Central Serous Retinopathy
  • Retinal Tears
  • Retinal Detachments
  • Macroaneurysms
  • Sickle Cell Retinopathy
  • Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion
  • Central Retinal Vein Occlusion

"In 1976, the Diabetic Retinopathy Study proved that panretinal laser photocoagulation treatments eliminated 90% of blindness in high risk diabetic patients.  The study was so convincing that it was felt unethical not to treat the control group that did not receive laser treatments ."