Are premature babies who suffered Retinopathy of Prematurity and went blind have any chance of seeing?
Because of the state of medical technology in my country, doctors here are saying they can’t do anything anymore will it be the same in other countries like in Europe or US?
Possibly, depending on how long ago retinal detatchment occured. If the retina is detached, it must be reattached before sealing the retinal tear. There are three ways to repair retinal detachments. Pneumatic retinopexy involves injecting a special gas bubble into the eye that pushes on the retina to seal the tear. The scleral buckle procedure requires the fluid to be drained from under the retina before a flexible piece of silicone is sewn on the outer eye wall to give support to the tear while it heals. Vitrectomy surgery removes the vitreous gel from the eye, replacing it with a gas bubble, which is slowly replaced by the body’s fluids.
It’s also treatable befoe blindness occurs.Patients with early stages of ROP need observation; most of these eyes will return to normal development. If the disease progresses, treatment is considered. A multicenter research trial funded by the National Eye Institute showed that destroying the undeveloped retina with freezing treatments (cryotherapy) stopped the progression of the disease in about 50 percent of infants. This reduced the number of retinal detachments in severely affected eyes from about 50 to 25 percent.
Recently, laser has become the standard treatment to destroy the non-developed retina. It appears that laser treatment is at least as effective as the cryotherapy and has a lower rate of complication. However, despite treatment, a significant group of patients continue to worsen. These are the patients thatmay be helped with surgery for retinal detachment (scleral buckle or vitrectomy surgery).
Were any of these treatments provided?
Email or Im me, I’m interested to know more.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Possibly, depending on how long ago retinal detatchment occured. If the retina is detached, it must be reattached before sealing the retinal tear. There are three ways to repair retinal detachments. Pneumatic retinopexy involves injecting a special gas bubble into the eye that pushes on the retina to seal the tear. The scleral buckle procedure requires the fluid to be drained from under the retina before a flexible piece of silicone is sewn on the outer eye wall to give support to the tear while it heals. Vitrectomy surgery removes the vitreous gel from the eye, replacing it with a gas bubble, which is slowly replaced by the body’s fluids.
It’s also treatable befoe blindness occurs.Patients with early stages of ROP need observation; most of these eyes will return to normal development. If the disease progresses, treatment is considered. A multicenter research trial funded by the National Eye Institute showed that destroying the undeveloped retina with freezing treatments (cryotherapy) stopped the progression of the disease in about 50 percent of infants. This reduced the number of retinal detachments in severely affected eyes from about 50 to 25 percent.
Recently, laser has become the standard treatment to destroy the non-developed retina. It appears that laser treatment is at least as effective as the cryotherapy and has a lower rate of complication. However, despite treatment, a significant group of patients continue to worsen. These are the patients thatmay be helped with surgery for retinal detachment (scleral buckle or vitrectomy surgery).
Were any of these treatments provided?
Email or Im me, I’m interested to know more.
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