Retinal Vascular Disease Specialist

What is retinal vascular disease?

Retinal vascular disease refers to any condition that may result in obstructed blood flow to your retina. Your eyes need a constant supply of blood that brings your cells oxygen and other nutrients and removes any waste products. 

However, if you have retinal vascular disease, these blood vessels become narrow or develop blood clots, resulting in blockages known as occlusions. Some common types of retinal vascular disease are:

• Hypertensive retinopathy
• Retinal vein occlusion
• Central retinal artery occlusion
• Branch artery occlusion
• Diabetic retinopathy

Retinal vascular occlusion can cause fluid to build up around your eyes and prevent light from reaching your retina. This results in suddenly compromised vision that can develop into permanent blindness if you don’t treat it.

What causes retinal vascular disease?

Retinal vascular disease is usually traced back to vascular diseases that already exist in patients. Some risk factors that can cause vascular conditions are:

• High blood pressure
• Atherosclerosis
• Heart disease
• High cholesterol
• Obesity
• Smoking

If you have a chronic disease like hypertension, it’s important to treat it and get your symptoms under control before they develop into complications like retinal vascular occlusion.

How do you treat retinal vascular disease?

At Retina Specialists, the team addresses the underlying condition causing your retinal vascular disease. They also provide treatments to restore blood flow and manage any symptoms that result from a buildup of fluid around your eye.

If your retinal vascular disease is the result of a systemic cause like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, your treatment aims to bring your numbers back to manageable levels. Your treatment may include medication and lifestyle changes like a modified diet and regular exercise. 

If you experience macular inflammation due to diabetic retinopathy, which is when diabetes causes damage to your retinal blood vessels, your ophthalmologist may suggest intraocular injections to reduce swelling that may cause vision loss. 

For more advanced cases, your specialist may recommend vitrectomy, laser surgery, or a combination of both, in which they use specialized tools to drain your vitreous humor gel and make repairs directly to your retina.

At Retina Specialists, the team tailors each treatment to your individual needs, which increases the chances of the treatment’s success and limits your exposure to unnecessary drugs.

To learn more about the various treatments for retinal vascular disease, call Retina Specialists, or use the online booking tool to make an appointment today.