By Lucy Nicholas
What is solar retinopathy?
Solar retinopathy is burning of the retina due to sun gazing.
It is a well-recognised clinical entity of retinal damage caused by direct or indirect viewing of the sun. Other common names of this entity are eclipse retinopathy, solar retinitis, eclipse burns and eclipse blindness. The majority of the cases of solar retinopathy involve eclipse viewing, religious sun-gazers, photographers and even sunbathers.
How does it occur?
When one is looking at the sun, in a normal eye the light gets precisely focused on the central part of the retina, the fovea. The power of our vision is centered in this particular spot, the fovea. The light focused on the retina gets converted into heat over the black cell layer and burns the cells leading to permanent damage. Since the light is focused on the fovea, even a second of sun-gazing is enough to cause permanent damage to the retina.
Normally, when we look at the sun our pupil becomes small and so the amount of light entering the eye is less and our retina is not damaged. But at the time of looking at the sun during a solar eclipse or during sun gazing at times, the intensity of the sun’s light is not that strong, our pupils tend to be larger in size, causing more amount of light to enter our eyes and possibly cause retinal burns and severe damage.
The unfortunate aspect is that there is no pain, but the vision is irrecoverable.
What are the risk factors?
Various factors may determine the severity of retinal lesions and the loss of vision in solar retinopathy. Increased duration of exposure and the lack of protection for solar viewings are the major risk factors.
What are the other symptoms?
Apart from decreased vision, the patient may also experience distortion of vision, a black spot, altered colour vision, after image and headache. In spite of a generally good prognosis, return of vision does not always imply complete recovery as the patient might keep on experiencing any of the above symptoms. Persistent black spots and image distortion may drastically reduce the reading performance in some patients.
What is the prognosis?
Although most cases of solar retinopathy improve over time without treatment, it depends on the severity of lesions .The patients do not completely turn blind, but the impaired quality of vision and persistence of symptoms may hamper their activities.
Is there any treatment?
In spite the lack of standardized protocol, corticosteroids and antioxidants are believed to be beneficial in its treatment. Antioxidants may ameliorate retinal injury. Appropriate protective measures while viewing an eclipse and education about the hazards of direct staring are the mainstay in the prevention of this condition.
Is there any way to look at solar eclipse?
Viewing an eclipse through binoculars, sun-glasses, exposed photographic or radiographic film or audio CD’s is never safe. Commercial solar filters certified as being safe have been shown to be the only safe method for eclipse observations.
About the Author: Lucy Nicholas also writes on Acne. More information http://www.natural-acne-treatments-reviews.com/
Source: www.isnare.com
