What are Eye Floaters
Eye Floaters can be seen as darkish shapes floating in your visual field. They can have circular or linear shapes and are often perceived as being ‘in front’ of the eyes. Most are small and you have to look hard to see them. They are seen best against a bright background like a computer screen, white wall or blue sky. Other floaters can be very annoying as they float right into the central visual field.
What is Vitreous Humour?
The vitreous humour is a clear jelly-like substance in the main chamber of the eye located between the lens and the retina. At a young age this fluid is clear and transparent. Over time this fluid can degenerate causing the vitreous humour to lose its form and liquefy. Without the stable vitreous humour, collagen fibres bond together to form clumps and knots. These cast a shadow on the retina to appear as spots, rings, strings or cobwebs in the vision.
How to Treat Eye Floaters
Until recently, the only one way to eradicate floaters was with a surgical procedure known as vitrectomy. This procedure has all the usual risks of an operation performed on the inside of an eye. Now the burden of floaters can be relieved with the use of a laser in a procedure known as vitreolysis. The specialized laser is the Ultra Q Reflex laser from Ellex. In this non-invasive and pain-free procedure, pulses of laser light are used to evaporate the molecules that make up the floaters. The floaters are ‘vaporised’, that is, they are converted to gas. The laser remove or markedly reduces the size of vitreous floaters.