burned retina at birth

kbacon · #1 Aug 30, 2006, 08:38 AM

My step son had jaundice at birth, of course he was place under the lights.
He has worn glasses since he was about 2 years old. His sight has progressively became worse. Yesterday we were told that his retinas were burned when he was placed under these lights. His retinas are progressively getting lighter. He will see a specialist in a couple of weeks. He is now 10 years old and extremly active. What are the options at this point, just to ease my mind until we see the doctor. Will he eventually be blind. Can we prevent any further deterioration. Help.
Thanks, Kathy

LTheobald · Sep 21, 2006, 01:21 AM

I know this is an old post but I thought I'd take a stab at answering this question. I don't have any medical education etc. but I do have a progressive retinal disorder and I too could be blind one day. So I cannot comment on if a burnt retina will repair itself or not but your might find the following interesting.

Technology is a wonderful thing. Each day knew discoveries are being made. The problem with the retina is that there is no blood supply reaching it directly (someone correct me if I am wrong). This makes it impossible to administer medication for the problem. But one option that is turning out to be popular are artificial implants. I did my thesis on these at university and it was great fun reading into this.

The idea is that they place a small microchip on the surface or under the retina. This microchip will catch the light coming into the eye, process the information and send it off to the brain. The technology is still new so at the moment the sight gained in tests is minimal. But for some people who lost all their sight, this would at least enable them to recognise obstacles etc.

Here are some links for you to read:
http://www.optobionics.com/
http://www.gla.ac.uk:443/newsdesk/stories.cfm?PRID=3858
http://www.technologyreview.com/read...29&ch=infotech
http://doemedicalsciences.org/abt/retina/retinas.shtml

I hope that was of some help.
Lee



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