Macular pucker and playing soccer

[emamom]

I'm a 38 year old female and I was just diagnosed in October with Macular Pucker in my left eye (my left eye has always been dominate with good vision and has compensated for the poor vision in my right eye). For five days my vision was blurry and distorted, however it cleared up after the diagnosis. Two months later it returned worse than it was before and my Dr. said that I may have to have surgery in 6-8 months.  Some days seem worse than others and brightness seems to be a factor, if I'm outside on a bright day, I can't see peoples faces or read street signs until they are close up. At home, I can read but I have to get up close and slow down, sometimes having to read the same word twice to make sure I read it correctly.  

I have a couple of questions...First of all, my retina specialist keeps asking me if I have had a head trauma because I am young to have this condition, I play soccer and asked if heading the ball could have cause this, he said no and that I can keep playing soccer, however, my step-mom is a nurse for an opthamologist and has asked a retina specialist that is associated with her office if I should play soccer and he said I shouldn't. It has been several weeks now since the blurriness/distortion has returned.  Do you think I can keep playing soccer and could heading the ball in soccer caused this to happen?  
Thanks for your time,
Soccer playing mom

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

If I understand right you have poor vision in your right eye and now blurred central vision in your left.

My advise would be to not play soccer or contact sports. If you insist on playing soccer the minimum would be to wear protective eyewear either goggles or shield. there is a high incidence of eye injuries in soccer.

Macular puckers (epiretinal membranes) can arise from traume, vascular occlusions or can be idiopathic (we don't know why they occur).

You need to take very good care of your eyes, especially since neither one of them is normal and you have the responsibilities of a mother. Why not take up swimming?

JCH III MD

[JodieJ]

I developed a macular pucker at age 51.  My retinal surgeon suspected that it was trauma-related (but who knows?)--I was hit by a falling box while reaching for something in the linen closet.  From what I know, after the traumatic event takes place, the amount and progression of scar tissue accumulating on the macula is unpredictable.  In most cases, the scarring is limited; however, in a minority of cases (like mine) the layer of scar tissue becomes progressively more dense and distorting over time.  Unless playing soccer is the most important thing in your life (and even then), I don't think you should continue to play in order to avoid further eye trauma.

On the positive side, the surgery to remove the pucker (vitrectomy with epiretinal membrane peeling) is neither painful nor particularly dangerous, especially if performed by a skilled retinal surgeon.  It restored my acuity in my affected eye to 20/20, although my retina will never be perfect.  (I see a slightly larger image in my affected eye than my "good" eye due to residual damage from the pucker.)

Best of luck.  

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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