20/2200 vision?

[cub412]

I am 50 years old and had scleral buckle surgery 3 months ago for a retinal tear. It seemed to go well. However, my vision in the post-operative eye is very blurry. I haven't gotten new glasses yet since I wanted to make sure everything had "stabilized" and get the go-ahead from my surgeon. The 3-month post-op appointment was this week and my vision in this eye is 20/2200! He said my eye was doing very well and that I should go ahead and get new glasses. I've been trying to find out what the diopters (?) would be for vision that bad, i.e. -14.00?

The assistant who did the preliminary exam seemed very surprised and said my vision had decreased drastically since the exam the day after the surgery. She asked me what had happened to me! (It really freaked me out).

I'm still kind of in shock. I knew my vision would be worse due to changing the shape of my eye. I didn't realize it would be this much worse. Are there other choices besides glasses with one super-strong lens? Is LASIK a possibility or lens replacement?

Thank you for your reply. I have another appointment in 6 months and want to be better prepared with questions than I was yesterday.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Most retina surgeons do not do refractions or glasses testing. Hopefully you have a personal Eye MD generalist. If not ask the retina doctor to refer you to one. You need to go in for a refraction and glasses testing. The important thing is what you vision is with the proper glasses. That will determine how much is due to needing glasses and how much is damage to the retina from the RD.

It often takes up to 12 months for the final visual acuity to develop. If the macula was pulled off the eye usually does NOT recover the full vision present before the RD. Also cataracts often develop after RD surgery.

JCH III MD