Question
I had two consultations with doctors that I am consider going with for my Visian ICL surgery. After extensive testing done by both doctors they arrived at mostly the same conclusion except one notable thing. One indicated that I have retina thinning and suggested that I have a retina specialist check it out and if necessary do a surgery to correct it before proceeding with this surgery. The other doctor detected lattice, but said that it wouldn't make a difference whether I proceed with the surgery first and then deal with the lattice or vise versa. Currently, I don't notice any vision problems. Which opinion do you think makes more sense and why?
Answer
Dear Vic,
This honestly depends on the expertise of examination of the retina of each doctor.
attice Degeneration means thinning of the retina or weaker areas in the retina. You may have this because of the shape of your eye ball which may be much longer than most normal people as the powers may also be high. Higher the number, longer the posterios part of the eye, this means the retina which is like a carpet covering inside the eye stretches out over a larger surface are...hence prone to weak areas, tears, detahcment etc.
Once a weak are is seen, the usual course of action for us (as Anterior Segment Surgeons) would be to seek an advise of a retinal expert especially if some intervention like ICL is being done.
The retinal specialist determines if this weakening needs to be strengthened with Argon Lasering before the ICL.
The two areas are different, ie. ICL being put in another part of the eye and the retina is in another area, but just the observation of this makes one more cautious.
Hope this helps,
Best
Dr Anand Shroff, MS (OPHTH), FICS
www.shroffeye.org
