Tag Archives: Eyes
For National Glaucoma Awareness Month, we offer a few observations. Glaucoma is defined as high intraocular pressure, which has damaged the optic nerve. Glaucoma gradually shrinks the visual field, and in rare cases causes vision loss. Normal intraocular pressure is maintained in the anterior chamber angle (trabecular meshwork), which should be open for 360 degrees. (Acute angle closure is a medical emergency.) Glaucoma has also been described as epithelial dysfunction and/or endothelial dysfunction, in the anterior chamber angle, causing loss…..
Refractive surgery has been promoted as a path to happiness and freedom from glasses and contact lenses—it is not. The 20/happy method of evaluating success is not a scientific method to evaluate the success of eye surgeries or vision correction. Approximately 20% of refractive surgery patients have complaints immediately or in the short term; 50% are back in glasses within five years, and at that time correcting vision can be more difficult due to an irregular cornea; and most people…..
The FDA failed to define “reportable complications” from refractive surgery, when approving the devices used; thus, surgeons do not know what complications to report. The number of reported complications may be 1/100th of the total complications, which is the typical rate of reporting complications for all medical devices. Even when reported, the manufacturer often blames the doctor or patient rather than the device, hides problems in their “complaint files”, and fails to pass the report on to the FDA. …..
The average thickness of the central cornea is approximately 550 microns (mcns), slightly more than 1/2 a millimeter. (A credit card is 700 mcns thick.) The center of the cornea is the thinnest point, with increasing thickness toward the periphery. Corneas which are too thin or too thick, or have an unusual shape, may be an indication of a corneal thinning disease. Rigid contact wear can thin the cornea, and toric contact lenses for astigmatism can cause thinning inferiorly, as…..
Ophthalmology, like many specialties, has many named diseases and syndromes that are descriptions of symptoms or findings, or named after the doctor who first named the disease, often before technology was available to identify infectious causes. Some syndromes and descriptions of symptoms in ophthalmology include, but are not limited to, endothelial dystrophy, endothelial dysfunction, epithelial dysfunction, inflammation, and inclusion cysts; Fuchs corneal dystrophy, Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis, glaucoma, macular degeneration, RPE, ICSR, retinitis pigmentosa, and retinal detachment; and Waldenstrom syndrome,…..
H-pylori can cause RPE, geographic atrophy, lattice degeneration, retinal holes, retinal tears, and retinal detachments. H-pylori attacks retinal epithelium, and burrows downward to attack collagen, causing loss of adherence (RPE) of retinal layers, inflammation, thinning, pitting, and atrophy; and ultimately retinal holes, tears and detachments. Chlamydia trachoma, psittacosis and pneumonia can also attack retinal epithelium and endothelium, and retinal vessels. Chronic infection can cause thinning and stretching of the retina, and the tension leads to holes or thin spots at…..
Pterygium are abnormal lesions on the sclera (the white surface of the eye). Pterygium are caused by chronic infection, and the lesion can spread to the cornea. Surgery to remove pterygium may make the pterygium worse, because surgery on infection creates a high risk the infection will spread to new tissue or reoccur. Antibiotics used during and after pterygium surgery can treat the infection but can also cause the pathogen to become more antibiotic resistant. Patients with pterygium should be…..
Optic neuritis is a disease which describes inflammation of the optic nerve. Dr. Merchant saw a patient with optic neuritis, who had recurrent episodes of waking up blind in one eye; and her MRI of the brain showed white spots, similar to what occurs in multiple sclerosis. After treatment of chronic infections the optic neuritis disappeared, and she had no further episodes of vision loss. The white spots on her MRI also disappeared, which was considered impossible! Dr. Pohl reported…..
Veterinarians know pets transmit viral, bacterial and parasitic infections to their owners, cats transmit toxoplasmosis to owners, and horses can transmit chlamydia psittacosis. Veterinarians know owners can transmit pathogens to the pets, and lists of human and animal diseases are similar. The “Atlas of CLINICAL OPHTHALMOLOGY” warns cats and dogs can transmit pathogens that cause eye disease. Literature supports pathogens can migrate from one part of the eye to another, which may then be treated by a different ophthalmology…..
Chlamydia pneumonia can cause mini-strokes in the eye, blocking the blood supply to the optic nerve, by the same mechanism chlamydia pneumonia causes strokes in the cardiovascular system and brain. A stroke in the eye may be called NAION (non-arteric anterior ischemic optic neuropathy), or AION (anterior ischemic optic neuropathy), which each describe restricted blood flow in the vessels of the eye. NAION and AION can be caused by chlamydia pneumonia, and the endothelial dysfunction, inclusion cysts, cholesterol deposits,…..
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