Everybody who suffers from eye floaters has something in common besides actually having floaters: they want relief from the visual distraction that follows them everywhere they go. Ordinarily, most of these floaters go away by themselves. However, in some cases, they can become very disturbing to your vision. In the past, you either had to learn to live with floaters or you could undergo a vitrectomy, a surgical procedure with some possible complications. Most ophthalmologists would only recommend a vitrectomy for severe cases, leaving those who simply found floaters bothersome with no option but to, well, get used to them.
Floaters, or what Dr. Stephen Weinstock calls Anterior Vitreous Clouding Syndrome (AVCS), are part of the gel-like substance in the back of your eye, called the vitreous. As we age, the protein fibers that make up the vitreous start to shrink into little shreds that clump together and form veils of collagen. The shadow from these veils that are cast on your retina can interfere with your vision to different degrees. They can be so mild that they simply go unnoticed, but more frequently sometimes they obstruct vision and are really a nuisance. Smaller ones often make you think that there is something flying around, like a bug, that you are unable to swat away. And the little bug is always there.
Floaters are very common following cataract surgery. Months or even years after cataract surgery, it’s not unusual for the thin membrane (or “capsule”) that’s left intact behind the intraocular lens (IOL) to become cloudy, affecting vision. In the capsulotomy procedure used to treat PCO, a special type of laser focuses energy onto the cloudy capsule, vaporizing the central portion of it to create a clear path for light to reach the retina, which restores clear vision.
A new, safer procedure has proven to be highly effective, yielding impressive results for improvement of floaters that restrict or interfere with a patient’s vision. This non-invasive procedure, called a vitreolysis, involves the use of a specially designed YAG laser to treat the floaters. In this in-office procedure, a laser beam is projected into the eye through the pupil and is focused on large floaters, which breaks them apart and vaporizes them.
The non-invasive, in-office procedure to eliminate floaters takes anywhere between 5 to 15 minutes depending on its severity. Patients go home right afterward returning to normal activities that day. There can be 100% resolution of floaters, but sometimes a second or third procedure is necessary to accomplish this.
The Eye Institute of West Florida is proud to offer our patients this new option to improve the loss of vision caused by condensations of floaters. If you have any of the above symptoms or difficulties please call for an appointment. The procedure can be performed by one of our retina or cataract specialists using the advanced YAG laser.
If you are looking for relief from bothersome, annoying, distracting floaters, schedule your appointment with one of the specialists at The Eye Institute of West Florida to see if you are a candidate for this new treatment option and celebrate as you watch your floaters float away.
