Can Injections Treat Serious Eye Diseases?

Navigating the world around us involves gaining important information about our environment through our senses and acting accordingly. Hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting – all are very important, but the ability to see is often considered the most dominant and certainly one we’re highly reliant on. 

What we see and how we use that information informs every aspect of our lives, and diseases that affect our eyes can make it a more difficult sense to use, in some cases leading to blindness. Treating serious eye diseases is often as unique as the conditions, and there are a few that respond well to injections. 

Residents of the Muncie, Indiana, area looking for treatment options for serious eye conditions can find help from Dr. Jeffrey Rapkin and his experienced staff at Retina Consultants of Muncie.

Now, let’s examine how our eyes work, the serious diseases that can affect them, and when eye injections can help.

How your eyes work

Your vision works by taking in the light that bounces off the objects in the world around you, and passing it through the cornea, which is the clear outer layer of your eye. There it enters the dark opening in the middle of your eye (the pupil) and travels behind it to the lens, a curved disc that adjusts the image and flips it upside down. 

From there, it moves to the retina, where millions of cells called rods and cones, help to make sense of what you see. After that, the information goes to the optic nerve and hits the visual cortex where the image is flipped right side up and sent directly to your brain. 

Diseases that affect your eyes

Many treatable conditions affect your vision but don’t put you at risk for blindness, such as nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism. However, several eye diseases can cause complications that can make things worse over time and eventually impair your vision. These include:

Cataracts

A cloudy area in the lens of your eye that obstructs what you can see.

Glaucoma

A condition that damages the optic nerve due to intraocular pressure from fluid buildup in the front of the eye. The optic nerve is responsible for sending images to your brain.

Macular degeneration

The macula is the center of your retina and it focuses your vision. Degeneration in this area impacts central vision and makes seeing things directly in front of you difficult. 

Diabetic retinopathy

The damage from diabetes wreaks havoc on the blood vessels in your retina, leading to the growth of weaker, abnormal blood vessels that leak, fill your eyes, and cause the retina to detach over time.

Retinal diseases

Other retinal diseases that hurt your vision include retinal vascular disease, retinal vascular occlusion, and retinitis pigmentosa.

When eye injections are useful

Also referred to as intravitreal injections, eye injections deliver medications directly to the area of the eye that needs repair. They’re used to treat several retinal conditions, such as diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, retinal vascular disease, and retinal vascular occlusion. The procedure delivers a variety of medications, including steroids, antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, and anti-VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) drugs to help with these diseases.

While you may experience pressure in your eye during the injections, it only takes a few minutes and the uncomfortable sensation goes away. Mild irritation afterward is likely, and you may notice a spot of blood at the injection site for a few days.

These treatments are effective at managing potentially dangerous eye illnesses. To find out if you’re eligible for eye injections, make an appointment with Dr. Rapkin and his team at the Retina Consultants of Muncie today.