Retinal Detachment - Much worse than what you think.

[Justin9018]

Okay.. little back story. My left eye has been around 96-98% blind since birth. I got the final result when I was 4, and that was at the University of Florida. Now with the eye being blind it has basicly detoriated over the years (I am now 21..) And with research I have seen that any hope of having a surgery that can fix the blindness in the eye is well over 10 years off at the moment.

Now, to more recent.. Since August of this year I have had to retinal detachment surgeries with a 3 month or so checkup spand in between. Might be wondering why two... well it just seems to keep detaching. They first tried the gas bubble. That didnt work. They then tried oil.. and that worked until the last checkup. And it had detached AGAIN after they did laser and everything to tack it in place the time before that.

And then it was to the point where it wasn't really worth putting the eye through the trauma of a second surgery. Since then the vision has pretty much been 100% blocked out except for a little light. And I just don't know what to do.

It's fully detached for a third time. I will never be able to see out of it again anyway since I havn't been able to since birth anyway.. And it's just feels really awkward. It still has the oil, and the band around it from the second surgery.

But I just don't know what to do from here. Hopefully I can get a response and see what steps I can take.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The is a generalization but from what you've posted the prognosis is so poor that for most people it would not be worth the risks and the costs.

JCH MD

[berrywoo]

That decision about whether or not to have more surgery is between you and the doctor who examined you.

From your explanations, it does seem like the costs of surgery would be worse than just leaving things be.

[Justin9018]

Yeah I know I need to keep the other eye safe. But I am just curious if all surgeries would be pretty much useless on my left eye? From what I understand, with it being blind since birth there was alot of scar tissue. And because of that it kept pulling at the retina after the first surgery. During the second surgery, he removed alot of the scar tissue. But alot more formed in it's placed and caused the same effect even after extra steps to keep it in place (Laser tacking).

So I guess what I am asking, is that due to the history of the eye since birth it's not worth putting it through the trauma of more surgery? And just let it stay as it is? I know there is a 50/50 chance it can stay in the state it is, or start to die.

From research the only hope I ever have of being able to see out of the eye again is that little microchip thats in the works to allow the eye to connect to the brain and process images. But that is nowhere near being a working option. So I don't have any hope in that.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

I'm assuming all this is in your "bad eye". The prognosis is dismal and it's not likely that the surgery will be successful.

BY FAR: THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS PROTECTING YOUR GOOD EYE FROM INJURY AND DISEASE. ASK YOUR OPHTHALMOLOGISTS WHAT YOU CAN DO TO KEEP IT HEALTHY AND WEAR PROTECTIVE GLASSES ALL  WAKING HOURS.

JCH MD

[Justin9018]

Sorry for a mistake. But where it says "Since August" it was suppose to say "Since April." as of june I was done with both surgeries and found out in early june that it detached for the third time.