Light flashes, floaters warning signs of blindness risk
You simply love the camera. Every time the flashbulbs go off, your sense of celebrity comes rushing back. But if there are no cameras and you’re still seeing flashes of light, an immediate trip to your ophthalmologist is the need of the moment.
Floaters, those transparent spots, fibres, threads and fragments that irritatingly float before your eyes, and flashes of light could make your world permanently dark if not attended to immediately, a Canadian study has found.
After reviewing 200 published studies, researchers from Queen's University and Hotel Dieu Hospital in Kingston, Ontario, found new floaters and light flashes were caused by tear in the retina, a tissue that lines the inner part of the eye, in 14 per cent of patients.Floaters are linked to vitreous humour, a gelatinous substance between the lens of the eye and retina. Vitreous fluid, composed of 99 per cent water and 1 per cent a solid substance that also contains collagen, changes over the years.
Fibres released from the solid substance cause floaters.
With age, vitreous humour sometimes contracts and stimulates the retina, causing flashes. A heavy burst of floaters could signal the detachment of retina from the optic nerve.
Dr Sanjay Sharma, lead author of the study, said, “If we detect a tear and laser it, we can save people from potentially going blind. But if fluid gets in under the retina and causes it to detach, it may be too late.”
Unfortunately, detecting retinal tear is not easy for doctors.
“If new floaters are associated with visual loss, a defect in the visual field, or the presence of blood or 'tobacco dust' in the eye jelly, the risk of retinal tear is significantly higher. Since retinal tear can lead to detachment in up to 50 per cent of cases, new floaters and flashes is a medical condition that needs urgent assessment,” Dr Sharma said.
At greater risk are those with severe myopia, or short-sightedness, as their retinas are spread thinner.
Details of the study have been published in Journal of the American Medical Association.
If you want to keep your peepers, keep an eye on flashes, floaters.
