Archive for the ‘Retinal Detachment’ Category
Eye injections for macular degeneration rarely cause retinal detachment
03.25.2011Patients with retinal disease who are treated with intravitreal anti-VEGF injections have a lower incidence of retinal detachment according to a recent study. The retrospective study involved reviewing cases from six centers over a consecutive 36-month period from January 2006 to December 2008.
The retinal diseases that were being treated included macular edema, retinal hemangioma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, subretinal hemorrhages, and Irvine-Gass syndrome. The injections that were given used Lucentis, Avastin or recombinant tissue plasminogen activator. Only 5 retinal detachments were documented over the 3-year study period and they occurred between 2 and 6 days after the injection.
Researchers noted that the chemical compound and volume of the injected drug and the patient?s underlying disease may have played a role in the incidence of retinal detachment. Also influencing the incidence of retinal detachment was the injection site, the tunneled technique and the size of the needles.*
Elise Ervin
Staff Writer
Arnall Patz, the Doctor who discovered the cause of Stevie Wonder’s blindness, is dead
03.23.2010Renowned ophthalmologist, Dr. Arnall Patz, has passed away at the age of 89. Dr. Patz’s groundbreaking research led to the discovery that high doses of oxygen administered to premature infants could cause a form of blindness now known as retinopathy of prematurity (R.O.P.).
R.O.P. is what caused legendary singer Stevie Wonder’s blindness. Dr. Patz had to overcome the hostility of many in the medical field to prove that the high doses of oxygen were harming instead of helping the premature infants. The high dose of oxygen leads to overgrowth of blood vessels in the eye which damages the retina permanently.
Dr. Patz is also credited with helping to develop one of the first argon lasers which is now a standard treatment for macular degeneration and other eye disorders. President George W.? Bush awarded Dr. Patz the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 for his outstanding contributions in ophthalmology.*
Andrea Schumann
Staff Writer
