60 year-old male with string, octopus-like floaters in the left eye for 2 days, diagnosed with a retinal tear
This is a patient that was referred to our retina specialist, Dr. Steven M. Christiansen, late on a Friday afternoon after being diagnosed with a retinal tear by his optometrist earlier in the day. He had complained of about two days of stringy, octopus-like floaters in his left eye. You can understand why those floaters would be so bothersome because right in his very central vision he has a significant amount of stringy floaters that he described as being octopus-like. Imagine looking through that type of floater and how bothersome that would be to your central vision.
Octopus-Like Floaters
Red-free photograph of macular demonstrating vitreous floaters due to vitreous hemorrhage and retinal tear
Retinal Tear
Retina photo demonstrating vitreous hemorrhage and superonasal retinal tear
But it is actually not the floaters that are the biggest concern in his case. The biggest concern is that he has a tear in his retina. In the superonasal or upper nose side of the retina he has a horseshoe tear that is actually shaped like a horseshoe, and in his case, the tear involves a blood vessel that crosses over the top of the tear where the retina is torn. That blood vessel is why he has had so much bleeding that is involving his central vision. If left untreated this would likely progress to becoming a retinal detachment, but in our Castle Rock, Colorado clinic he was able to treat this retinal tear preventatively by applying laser around the tear, to effectively wall that area off and keep it from progressing to a retinal detachment. Thanks to this emergency treatment of this retinal tear, this patient will likely avoid a retinal detachment and retinal detachment surgery. Over time the floaters will improve, but that may take a couple weeks or a month or two.
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