Overview
Retinal diseases are those that affect your retina, or the back layer of your eye. Light goes into your eye through your cornea and through the opening at the center of your iris called the pupil. Your lens focuses the light onto your retina.
Your retina is the part of your eye that’s responsible for converting light into electrical signals. Then, your optic nerve sends these signals to your brain, which turns the signals into images.
A retinal disease can affect any part of your retina, including your macula, the center part of your retina that lets you see details. You can inherit some of these conditions.
Many retinal diseases cause symptoms that affect your vision. It’s important to find and treat diseases of the retina. Many of them can cause blindness or low vision if they aren’t treated.
Types of retinal diseases
There are several diseases of the retina. Some of them include:
- Diabetes-related retinopathy.
- Retinal detachment.
- Retinal tears or holes.
- Retinal vein occlusion, including central retinal vein occlusion and branch retinal vein occlusion.
- Infectious retinitis.
- Central serous retinopathy.
- Birdshot chorioretinopathy and other inflammatory diseases.
There are diseases that affect your macula, such as:
- Macular pucker, also called an epiretinal membrane.
- Macular hole.
- Age-related macular degeneration.
- Macular edema (swelling due to fluid buildup).
You can inherit other retinal diseases, like:
- Retinitis pigmentosa.
- Usher syndrome, an inherited condition that causes retinitis pigmentosa.
- Stargardt disease.
- Retinoschisis, which can be something that you’re born with or something that develops over time.
How common are retinal diseases?
There are about 11.8 million people in the U.S. with eye diseases, including glaucoma, diabetes-related retinopathy and photoreceptor degeneration, which refers to a loss of rods and cones.
Symptoms
When to see a doctor
Complications
- High blood pressure.
- Diabetes.
- Heart failure.
- Some types of heart valve disease.
Prevention
- Control high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.
- Don't smoke or use tobacco.
- Eat a diet that's low in salt and saturated fat.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes a day on most days of the week unless your health care team says not to.
- Get good sleep. Adults should aim for 7 to 9 hours daily.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Reduce and manage stress.
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