Eye Floaters

[Koolau]

My eye doctor told me that I had a lot of floaters and that once I had cataract surgery I would probably notice them more because my vision would be better and that’s what happened. I notice them the most when I am driving.

That happened to me. I notice them in certain kinds of light, not just driving.

 

[Telly]

If you are going to have cataract surgery anyway in the future is it easier to get floaters fixed too? Mine are large enough they can be pretty distracting when in sunlight and driving.

No.

Cataract surgery opens up an edge in the front of the lens capsule that holds the biological lens. Removes the biological lens. Inserts and positions the IOL (Intra-Ocular Lens). And closes the wound.
The floaters are in the vitreous, the large area behind the capsule, and can be anywhere in the vitreous. And it moves when you move your pupil around.

The back of the capsule separates the IOL from the vitreous. Often, some time after cataract surgery, cells will grow between the back of the IOL and the rear of the capsule, causing a reduction in vision. The solution is a quick YAG laser treatment through the eye from outside, through the pupil. The YAG laser is pulsed and used to make a "+" sign in the back of the capsule, though not to the full diameter of the capsule. The laser destroys the rear capsule tissue in that pattern. The back of the capsule then folds back, allowing the offending cells to disburse into the vitreous. The "plus sign" incision is less than the diameter of the lens capsule, to leave a rim of capsule to hold onto the IOL. Without this rim, the IOL would just float out the back and into the vitreous - very bad!

After YAG laser surgery, I ended up with a "starburst" effect in low-light conditions in one eye only, when looking at a light. I wondered if the YAG incision was too small in that eye. My Ophthalmologist/surgeon looked at it, said it was correct, but if I wanted to, he would make it larger. Thinking about the purpose of leaving enough rim, I decided no, leave it alone. Why chance it. I'll live with the starburst.

Many floaters "go away" because the brain learns to ignore them. Those are really still there. However, certain lighting conditions can accent them, "bringing them back". Driving into an unobstructed blue sky, like driving south in the morning/noon for more than a short while can do it for me.

Some other floaters I have, mostly the bubble type, opaque or clearish, will slowly sink out of my vision, if I keep looking straight. If I start following the floaters with my eyes, I'd go crazy! So I catch myself, and stop it!

Needless to say, eye surgery is very serious business. Mistakes can lead to permanent vision degradation, or loss of vision. There is a lot of misinformation that floats around in the general public. Wikipedia is a good internet source for the basics and beyond.

For my very odd vision effects that ended up driving cataract surgery, the British National Health Eye Institute was the only online source that mentioned it. Everything else pointed to an optic nerve tumor. Some things can be pretty rare. I have no desire to be special, but it's not my choice!

For the science folks here, I found out that the optical nerves are interlaced. Each eye has outputs that go to BOTH brain inlets. I.E., the Left eye's optical nerve have fibers that go to both the Left and Right brain inlets for optical nerves. And the Right eye optical nerve fibers also split to both brain inputs. Must have been some Darwinian reason for that, but unknown.

 

[eytonxav]

I had a vitrectomy several years ago due to a very large floater that obscured my vision and to correct an epi-retinal membrane that was also negatively impacting my vision. I do still get an occasional small floater, but it drops out of sight with no impact in a day or two. That said the retinal peel procedure to repair the membrane actually took a few years to fully heal as the inflammation in the back of the eye subsides, but I am very happy with the results. Just make sure you get an ophthalmologist who has plenty of experience with the procedure.