A day in the life of an OptStudent

At the Center for the Partially Sighted (CPS), we see mainly low vision patients but there are certain days where we are assigned to see diabetic patients. If you didn't know already, diabetes manifests in the eye and can have some serious sight-threatening consequences. This manifestation is widely known as diabetic retinopathy, or "DR".

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In a previous blog, I mentioned briefly about Posterior Vitreous Detachments (PVDs)...well as it turns out, today I saw another PVD and the patient had a classic appearance of the vitreous right behind the eye. However, it can be very difficult to detect if you don't know what it looks like. After searching far and wide in the internet, I couldn't find a good picture of what it looks like, but turns that I found something even better - a video! Please check out the following link to see the video:

http://www.ophthobook.com/videos/retina-basics-video

This video from YouTube also describes how a PVD occurs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJn4h0n5LQ

Hopefully after you see this video you'll be able to detect PVDs as seen behind the crystalline lens!

Whenever a person gets a cataract that affects their vision severely, they usually get cataract surgery. The point of the procedure is to break up the lens, which lies inside a "bag" (the capsule) then suction the pieces out; afterwards, a lens implant is inserted to replace the old lens so that the patient can still see.

However, sometimes pieces of the lens is left over, and they tend to grow and form a layer that blurs up the patient's vision. This is called a "second cataract". The way to treat this is through YAG Capsulotomy. Basically, a laser is used to blast through the layer. Check out the video below - it's pretty interesting and it reminds me of playing a video game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_H-HLqsFcc