SPOTS BEFORE YOUR EYES MOVIE
SPOTS BEFORE YOUR EYES SKIN

'It is the sudden onset of the tiny ones accompanied by flashes of light that you have to be concerned about.'

Jim Garrity, a Mayo Clinic ophthalmologist, stresses in a periodic lecture he offers for general practitioners. The question is, When are floaters alarming and when are they benign? In 10 to 15 percent of detachments, as the vitreous separates, it tears the retina, requiring immediate treatment, either with a laser or through surgery. Posterior vitreous detachments occur in fewer than 10 percent of people under 50, but in 60 percent of people over 70. As the vitreous tears from the retina, a fragment of tissue remains attached to the receding vitreous.

SPOTS BEFORE YOUR EYES SKIN

In posterior vitreous detachment, as the fluid from the degenerating vitreous gel moves between the skin of the vitreous and the retina, the vitreous separates from the retina, usually near the optic nerve. The third kind of floater, however, caused by a posterior vitreous detachment, is far more likely to impair vision. In each case, the brain almost always gets used to the floaters or they migrate out of view. Much less common is a second type, floaters caused by specks or globs of blood, the result of bleeding brought on by rips in the retina or as a complication of diabetes. Most adults experience this type of floater at some time.

SPOTS BEFORE YOUR EYES MOVIE

As light passes through the vitreous, floaters cast annoying shadows on the retina, the eye's movie screen. It is these clumps of protein and water, of varying shape, meandering unpredictably within the vitreous cavity, that are the source of most floaters. The function of the vitreous, which makes up four-fifths of the volume of the eye, is to give it its shape, to be a shock absorber in younger eyes and, some argue, to nourish the inner eye. Its outer boundary is defined by a crust like the skin of Jell-O. Sitting directly between the lens and the retina is a cavity known as the vitreous or vitreous humor. The most common type of floater is caused by aging. In 85 percent of cases, the floaters caused by posterior detachment are mere annoyances, but when they occur suddenly, immediate medical examination is essential. William Kirber, diagnosed a posterior vitreous detachment, one of several causes of floaters, sensations that many people describe as specks, bugs or cobwebs floating in their fields of vision. But the blurriness - a sort of floating haze - persisted overnight.Īfter hearing the symptoms, my ophthalmologist, Dr.

I thought that maybe a branch had slapped across my glasses, dirtying the lens, and I went inside to clean it. I was high on a ladder picking Jonagold apples when I felt a pop in my left eye, followed by blurriness. My introduction to floaters came on a sunny September afternoon in the orchard.

Spots before your eyes