Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 02/17/2009
Disease and disorders affecting the retina cause the majority of the visual disability and blindness in the United States. Retinal detachment occurs in one in 10,000 Americans each year, with middle-aged and older individuals being at higher risk than...
the younger population. Coats' disease usually affects children, especially boys, in the first 10 years of life, but it can also affect young adults. The condition affects central vision, typically in only one eye. Severity can range from mild vision loss to total retinal detachment and blindness. No cause has yet been identified for Coats' disease. According to the National Cancer Institute, retinoblastoma accounts for approximately 11% of cancers developing in the first year of life, and for 3% of the cancers developing among children younger than 15 years. In the United States, approximately 300 children and adolecents below the age of 20 are diagnosed with retinoblastoma each year. The majority of cases occur among young children, with 63% of all retinoblastoma occurring before the age of two years.
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Definition
Retinal cryopexy, also called retinal cryotherapy, is a procedure that uses intense cold to induce a chorioretinal scar and to destroy retinal or choroidal tissue.
Purpose
The retina is the very thin membrane in the back of the eye that acts like the "film" in a camera. It is held against the inside back portion of the eye by pressure from fluid within the eye. In the front part of the eye, the retina is firmly attached at a ring just behind the lens called the pars plana. In the back part of the eye, the retina is continuous with the optic nerve. In between the pars plana and the optic nerve the retina has no fixed attachments. The retina collects information from the images projected on it from the eye lens and sends it along the optic nerve to the brain, where the information is interpreted and experienced as sight.
Other Information
Approximately 56% of all patients achieve results of 20/20 or better and over 90% achieve 20/40 or better (which is good enough to drive without corrective lenses in most regions).1 Those with moderate to high myopia (greater than 7 diopters) have a lesser chance of achieving that result. As technique and technology improve, the results continue to improve.
From: Eye Surgery Education Council
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