Medical and surgical retina service

The centre of your retina starts to deteriorate. This can cause your central vision to become distorted or blurry. Over time a blank patch may appear in the centre of your vision.

If you have diabetes, tiny blood vessels at the back of your eye can deteriorate and leak fluid into and under the retina. This can lead to your vision becoming blurred or distorted.

A sheet of naturally occurring cells develop on or above the surface of the retina. As the sheet shrinks, it can cause the retina to wrinkle under it. This can distort and blur your vision.

We use eye injections (also known as intravitreal injections) to administer medicines that can treat retinal conditions. With your eye numbed, a very fine needle is passed into the vitreous cavity of the eye. This is the back part of the eye that’s filled with a gel known as vitreous.Treatments are usually given as a course of injections that occur once a month for a minimum of three or four months. Treatment may continue for many months, depending on the response to treatment. There are some conditions that only require a single injection, while others require regular injections every few months.

Laser treatment involves an intense focused beam of light passing through your pupil and burning areas of the back of the eye, depending on the condition you have. At The London Clinic, we typically use laser treatment to:

• Treat a retinal tear to reduce the risk of a retinal detachment
• Manage or reduce the risk of abnormal new blood vessels on the retina
• Reduce a build-up of fluid in the eye or treat fluid leakage in the macula (the centre part of the retina)

Most laser treatments are done in our outpatient clinic with just local anaesthetic drops being used to numb the eye. This means treatment usually takes less than one hour, and you can go home the same day.

A small gap develops in the macula at the centre of your retina. This can lead to blurred vision and straight lines starting to appear wavy and distorted.

An emergency condition that involves your retina detaching from the inside of your eye. Floaters, flashing lights, a dark shadow in your vision and blurred vision are all symptoms. It can be repaired with surgery.

A blockage of a retinal vein causes blood and other fluid to leak into the retina. This can suddenly but painlessly cause a loss of vision.

A genetic eye condition that affects the light sensitive cells in the retina. Symptoms include not seeing well in dim light and losing the ability to see things outside your direct line of sight (poor peripheral vision).

A vitrectomy operation is surgery carried out inside the eye. It involves three small keyhole cuts being made on the white of the eye for access. As part of the surgery, the vitreous gel in the back half of the eye is removed. Your eye does not replace or regrow the vitreous gel. Instead, at the end of the operation, it’s replaced with a balanced salt solution, a gas bubble or an oil bubble.Vitrectomy surgery is used to treat a range of conditions, including retinal detachment, macular holes, epiretinal membrane, vitreous haemorrhage and advanced complications of diabetic eye disease.

The clear, gel-like substance in the centre of your eye (vitreous) shrinks and pulls on the retina to cause a tear in it. This can lead to distorted vision, flashes of light in your vision and objects appearing smaller than they are.