Wednesday, 29 September 2010

What Is a Weiss Ring Floater?

Before we get into knowing what Weiss ring floater is, let’s understand what floaters mean and which body part they affect us. Floaters are basically debris that hovers around the vitreous humor. It’s a gel like matter that resides between our retina and the lens of our eye. They have been reported amongst individuals as young as 9 years old. Any kind of eye damage that causes materials to enter our vitreous humor can give rise to floaters.

As such, floaters are harmless and do not pose grave health risks. Some floaters might stay in your vision, while most of them will fade away on their own over a period of time. However, in some cases they can cause great disturbance in your life as they can be hugely annoying. Also, if the floaters spread abruptly, then one needs to examine the condition to rule out any abnormality such as retinal tear.

Talking about Weiss ring floater, it’s a type of floater that is usually larger in size in comparison to other floaters affecting human beings. Weiss ring floaters make way into our lives when the vitreous tissue surrounding the optic nerve gets separated from the back of the eye. Typically, Weiss ring floater appears like a big ring shaped floater which is seen clearly against light background. The large size of the Weiss ring floater makes it more annoying than the regular floaters. A person experiencing this condition for the first time might get hugely bothered due to the intimidating size. Not to forget the fact that Weiss ring floaters affects one of most sensitive body organs-eyes.

As mentioned earlier, it’s imperative for one to seek medical attention if the floaters show indication of rapid spread. Retinal tear due to the spread of Weiss ring floaters can be damaging for our eyes. Although the cases of vision damage are rare, one can’t afford to take any risk over here. As such, there are many measures out there that can help one deal with Weiss ring floaters. One of the most talked about measures of handling Weiss ring floaters is laser surgery. Needless to say, this method is expensive, but effective and it offers one quick result in comparison to other remedies out there in the market.

Reports suggest that the success rate of a particular floater cure depends hugely upon the type of floater one is suffering from. The success rate with Weiss ring floaters is said to be 95%. That being said, there are certain risks associated with the treatment. In one such incident at South Florida Eye Clinic nearly 4000 patients were treated for floaters. Amongst these patients, eight patients showcased intraocular pressure rise and about six of them experienced small micro-hemorrhages in the choroid. Although these conditions were treated effectively with further medications, one can’t undermine the fact that the risk factor does exist to a certain extent. As such, some experts suggest against the removal of floaters unless required, due to the adverse effects associated with the treatment.

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