Stents for Glaucoma Treatment

Microinvasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS) utilizes tiny stents to help control the eye pressure or intraocular pressure if you have glaucoma and have cataracts, and might need cataract surgery. In the U.S., over 20% of patients undergoing cataract surgery have a concurrent diagnosis of glaucoma, which represents approximately 700,000 patients each year who may be candidates for this type of glaucoma treatment. Most patients with glaucoma are treated with eye drops to lower their pressure, have laser treatments for glaucoma and if necessary have surgery for glaucoma treatment. The problem with eye drops for glaucoma is that patient compliance is often not consistent and may be as low as 50% after the first year-thus additional treatment options such as laser treatment for glaucoma of MIGS might be a better way for some patients to keep their eye pressure under control.

If you or someone you know has questions about micro invasive glaucoma surgery for patients with cataracts and having cataract surgery, please feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or www.facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island

Risks of Contact Lenses for Halloween

Center for Sight wants to make Fall River residents aware that the improper use of decorative cosmetic contactlenses for Halloween poses risks to eye health and vision. The Food and Drug Administration, regulates all contact lenses as medical devices that require a prescription and proper fitting by an eye-care professional. Even someone with perfect vision would still require an eye exam and a prescription in order to wear any kind of contacts, including cosmetic decorative contact lenses for Halloween. Some websites advertise decorative contacts as if they were fashion accessories or toys with fanciful, playful packaging in order to attract teens and young adults, especially girls.

The Problem with Decorative Cosmetic Contact Lenses

The problem is not that people use decorative, non-corrective contact lenses, but that they buy the devices without a prescription through unlicensed vendors on the Internet or at flea markets and specialty shops.

The Eye Health & Vision Risks with Decorative Cosmetic Contact Lenses

The risks of using improper cosmetic non-corrective decorative contacts are significant to eye health and vision. The buyer of these over-the-counter contact lenses faces a range of risks including scratched corneas or corneal abrasions, “pink eye” conjunctivitis and more serious types of blinding infection as a result of a corneal ulcer or keratitis.

The safe and effective use ofcontact lenses-whether decorative or not-requires proper fitting and education about their care to prevent the potential for serious eye problems from becoming a reality. If you or a friend would like to learn more about contact lenses of any type including decorative contacts please call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or www.facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

Injections for Diabetic Macular Edema

At Center for Sight we are fortunate to be able to offer injections of Vascular Endothelial Growth Inhibitor (VEGF) drugs-such as Lucentis® & Eyelea®-that are helpful to treat and reverse the effects of Diabetic Macular Edema. Diabetic Macular Edema is a common cause of vision loss in diabetics suffering from the effects of diabetic retinopathy.

Frequency & Duration of Injection Treatment for Diabetic Macular Edema

Researchers reporting in the British Journal of Ophthalmology shared helpful information about the importance of the VEGF inhibitor injection frequency in the treatment of diabetic macular edema. The study confirmed that patients need to be patient as their ophthalmologists and retina specialists plan and schedule their examinations, testing and visits as sometime the best results can only be achieved with multiple injections over some period of time. In general good long term results are achieved by about 4 months of injection treatment, but 20% of patients with persistent Diabetic Macular Edema at 12 months achieved a dry macula with considerable restoration of vision with sustained treatment through 24 months suggesting that persistent Diabetic Macular Edema at 4-12 months should be not used as a stopping criterion for treatment.

If you or someone you know has questions about injections of Lucentis® and Eyelea® to treat Diabetic Macular Edema, please feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or www.facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

Contact Lens Fitting Success: What is the Best Age?

Parents often wonder what the best age is to fit their children with contact lenses in order to give them the most successful and safest wearing experience. Researchers reporting in Eye & Contact Lens: Science and Clinical Practice  studied differences  in current symptoms, compliance, ocular health and adverse events between current successful long–term contactlens wearers fit as children or as teenagers. They found that successful contact lens wearers who were fit as children are no more likely to report previous contact lens–related adverse events, problems with compliance, decreased wearing time, or worse ocular health than those fit as teenagers.  Their findings suggest that parents should not rely on age as a primary determinant in fitting children with contact lenses, but should rely on their eye doctor’s recommendations and evaluation of their child.

If you or someone you know has questions about what age to fit children or teenagers with contact lenses for best success might be, please feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or www.facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

Early Menopause Increases Glaucoma Risk

Women who go through menopause early may be at greater risk of developing glaucoma according to a study at the Netherlands Ophthalmic Research Institute in Amsterdam. In a study of more than 3,000 women, those who went through natural menopause before the age of 45 were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with open-angle glaucoma as women who went through menopause at age 50 or older. The results indicate that female hormones may be protective against open-angle glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness.  Of interest is that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is thought to reduce fluid pressure inside the eye. Similarly, as hormone levels rise during pregnancy, fluid pressure inside the eye decreases significantly, the researchers noted. This is the first study to examine the relationship between female sex hormones, as indicated by age of menopause and open-angle glaucoma.

If you or someone you know has questions about glaucoma risk with early menopause,  feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

What Cause a Bright Red Eye?

Have you or someone you’ve known ever experienced having a “bright red eye” or “bleeding eye”? It seems to come on with a cough or a sneeze-or sometimes with some heavy lifting-or for no reason at all-and has no pain, blurry vision or discharge. What could it be? As is true with any sudden change to your eye or your vision, we will ask you to come in so we can evaluate the problem, but it is possible that it is a subconjunctival hemorrhage.

What is Subconjunctival Hemorrhage?

Subconjunctival hemorrhage is a benign disorder that is a common cause of acute eye redness or “bright red eye”. The major risk factors include trauma and contact lens usage in younger patients, whereas among the elderly, systemic vascular diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and arteriosclerosis are more common. In patients in whom subconjunctival hemorrhage is recurrent or persistent, further evaluation, including a workup for systemic hypertension, bleeding disorders, systemic and ocular malignancies and drug side effects, is warranted.

If you or someone you know experiences a “bright red eye”, please call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit www.center-for-sight.com or facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island. 

Eat Fish to Decrease AMD Risk

Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) is a common cause of vision loss in seniors. Seniors and others at risk for Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) may want to eat certain fish as a way of helping to decrease their risk of developing this eye disease. Recently, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that the disease may be associated with a high dietary fat intake. The results of their study found that eating fish, such as tuna, four times a week, may reduce the risk of macular degeneration. The subjects of the study were participants in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who did not have AMD when the study commenced. After 12 years of follow-up, 567 people with a visual loss of 20/30 or worse were identified. Fat intake was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire. 

The study found:

·  Those patients whose total dietary fat intake was in the highest quintile had over one and
         a half times the risk of AMD as those whose fat intake was in the lowest quintile,

·  Linolenic acid consumption was directly associated with the risk of AMD,

·  High intake of docosahexaenoic acid was associated with a modest reduction in the risk of AMD.

·  Those who ate four or more servings of fish a week were at a 35% lower risk of AMD
         when compared to those who ate fewer than three servings of fish a week.

The researchers concluded that dietary fat intake was associated with an increased risk of age related macular degeneration (AMD) and that this may have been due to the presence of Linolenic acid in the fat. They added that a high intake of fish such as tuna, a rich source of docosahexaenoic acid, may reduce this risk.

If you or someone you know would like to learn more about how eating fish can decrease your risk of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), please feel free to call Center for Sight at 508-730-2020, visit center-for-sight.com or facebook.com/centerforsightfallriver to schedule an appointment.

Center for Sight is conveniently located at 1565 North Main Street, Suite 406, Fall River, Massachusetts 02720 for patients from Massachusetts or Rhode Island.