Peripheral retinal dystrophy
Content:
- What is Peripheral Dystrophy?
- Types of peripheral retinal dystrophy
- Symptoms of peripheral retinal dystrophy
- Causes of peripheral retinal dystrophy
- Treatment of peripheral retinal dystrophy
What is Peripheral Dystrophy?
Peripheral retinal dystrophy is a pathological process characterized by slow tissue destruction and deterioration of vision up to its complete loss. It is in this zone that dystrophic changes most often occur, and it is it that is not visible during a standard ophthalmological examination.
According to statistics, up to 5% of people with no history of vision problems, up to 8% of patients with farsightedness and up to 40% of patients diagnosed with myopia suffer from peripheral dystrophy.
Types of peripheral retinal dystrophy
The phrase peripheral dystrophy is a collective term that combines many diseases.
There are the following main varieties:
- Lattice dystrophy - represented by successively located white stripes, forming a pattern similar to the image of the grid. This picture is visible with a thorough examination of the fundus. The pattern is formed from vessels through which blood no longer passes, cysts form between them, which tend to rupture. Lattice-type dystrophy occurs against the background of retinal detachment in more than 60% of cases, often bilateral in nature.
- Dystrophy, damage of which proceeds as a snail track. On examination, whitish, somewhat gleaming perforated defects are visible, it is because of this that this type of disease received its name. At the same time, they merge into ribbons and resemble a snail's track. Large tears are often formed as a result of this type of dystrophy. In most cases, it is observed in people with myopic disease, it is less common than ethmoid dystrophy.
- Frost-like dystrophy is inherited, the changes are bilateral and symmetrical. This type of dystrophy got its name due to the fact that inclusions are formed on the retina, resembling flakes of snow, somewhat protruding above its surface.
- Cobblestone dystrophy is characterized by the formation of deeply located white annular defects with an oblong shape. Their surface is even, in 205 cases it is observed in patients with myopia.
- Retinoschisis - in most cases, this defect is hereditary and is characterized by retinal stratification. Sometimes it occurs with myopia and in old age.
- Small cystic dystrophy - characterized by the formation of cysts that have the ability to merge, their color is red, the shape is round. When they break, hole defects are formed.
Symptoms of peripheral retinal dystrophy
Regardless of the type of peripheral dystrophy, patients complain of similar symptoms:
- Deterioration of vision. Sometimes it is observed in only one eye, sometimes in both.
- Limitation of the field of view.
- The presence of fog before the eyes.
- Distorted color perception.
- Rapid fatigue of the organ of vision.
- The presence of flies or bright flashes before the eyes. This symptom is intermittent.
- Distortion of the image, the picture looks like a person is trying to see through a thick layer of water.
- Violation of perception of the shape of a real object and its color - metamorphopsia.
- Decreased vision in low light or at dusk.
Symptoms can occur both in combination and separately. Aggravated as dystrophy progresses. The danger of peripheral dystrophy lies in the fact that at the initial stages the disease does not manifest itself in any way, but develops asymptomatically. The first signs can begin to bother a person then, the detachment reaches the central departments.
Causes of peripheral retinal dystrophy
Among the causes of peripheral dystrophy are the following:
- Hereditary factor, it has been proven that dystrophy occurs more often in those people whose loved ones suffered from a similar problem.
- Myopia, this is due to the fact that the length of the eye increases, its membranes stretch and become thinner at the periphery.
- Inflammatory eye diseases.
- Eye injuries of various origins, including craniocerebral injuries.
- High blood pressure.
- A history of atherosclerosis.
- Diabetes.
- Infectious diseases.
- Carrying heavy weights, diving under water, climbing to heights, any extreme physical activity on the body.
- Intoxication of the body.
- Chronic diseases.
The disease does not depend on age and gender, with the same frequency occurs in men, women, children and pensioners.
Treatment of peripheral retinal dystrophy
Before proceeding with the treatment of peripheral dystrophy, it is necessary to correctly diagnose it. The difficulty lies in the fact that the symptoms at the initial stage of the development of the disease practically do not manifest themselves in any way, and during a normal examination, the periphery zone is inaccessible to the ophthalmologist. Therefore, a thorough and systematic examination is necessary, in the presence of risk factors.
Laser coagulation. Treatment of peripheral retinal dystrophy primarily consists of an operation. For this, the method of laser coagulation of blood vessels is used, which consists in delimiting the zone damaged by dystrophy. Laser coagulation can be carried out for prophylactic purposes in order to prevent the development of dystrophy. This is not a traumatic operation that does not require a rehabilitation stage and a person being in a hospital. After it is completed, it is advisable for the patient to prescribe medication and physiotherapy courses.
Preventive measures include, first of all, regular visits to an ophthalmologist, especially by people at risk. Peripheral dystrophy is dangerous due to its complications, therefore its early diagnosis and timely treatment are so important. It is important to remember that treating peripheral dystrophy is laborious, but preventing the disease is much easier. Therefore, a preventive visit to an ophthalmologist is so important, because any, even modern treatment is not able to restore vision by 100% and the purpose of the surgical intervention will be to stop the breaks and stabilize the level of vision that a person has for the period of treatment.
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The author of the article: Degtyareva Marina Vitalievna, ophthalmologist, ophthalmologist
