Overview

Eye floaters are spots in your vision. They may look to you wish black or gray specks, strings, or cobwebs that drift about once you move your eyes and appear to dart away once you try to look at them directly.

Most eye floaters are caused by age-related changes that occur because the jelly-like substance (vitreous) inside your eyes becomes more liquid. Microscopic fibers within the vitreous tend to clump and may cast tiny shadows on your retina. The shadows you see are called floaters.

If you notice a explosion in eye floaters, contact an eye fixed specialist immediately — especially if you furthermore may see light flashes or lose your sight. These can be symptoms of an emergency that requires prompt attention.

Symptoms

Symptoms of eye floaters may include:

Ø     Small shapes in your vision that appear as dark specks or knobby, transparent strings of floating material

Ø     Spots that move when you move your eyes, so when you try to look at them, they move quickly out of your visual field

Ø     Spots that are most noticeable when you look at a plain bright background, such as a blue sky or a white wall

Ø     Small shapes or strings that eventually settle down and drift out of the line of vision

When to see a doctor

Contact an eye specialist immediately if you notice:

Ø  Many more eye floaters than usual

Ø  A sudden onset of new floaters

Ø  Flashes of light in the same eye as the floaters

Ø  Darkness on any side or sides of your vision (peripheral vision loss)

Causes

Eye floaters could also be caused by the traditional aging process or as a result from other diseases or conditions:

Ø     Age-related eye changes. As you age, the vitreous, or jelly-like substance filling your eyeballs and helping them to take care of their shape , changes. Over time, the vitreous partially liquefies — a process that causes it to pull away from the eyeball's interior surface. As the vitreous shrinks and sags, it clumps and gets stringy. This debris blocks a number of the sunshine passing through the attention , casting tiny shadows on your retina that are seen as floaters.

Ø     Inflammation in the back of the eye. Posterior uveitis is inflammation within the layers of the uvea within the back of the attention . This condition can cause the discharge of inflammatory debris into the vitreous that are seen as floaters. Posterior uveitis may be caused by infection, inflammatory diseases or other causes.

Ø     Bleeding in the eye. Bleeding into the vitreous can have many causes, including diabetes, hypertension, blocked blood vessels and injury. Blood cells are seen as floaters.

Ø     Torn retina. Retinal tears can occur when a sagging vitreous tugs on the retina with enough force to tear it. Without treatment, a retinal tear may cause detachment of the retina — an accumulation of fluid behind the retina that causes it to break away the rear of your eye. Untreated retinal detachment can cause permanent vision loss.

Ø     Eye surgeries and eye medications. Certain medications that are injected into the vitreous can cause air bubbles to form. These bubbles are seen as shadows until your eye absorbs them. Certain vitreoretinal surgeries add silicone oil bubbles into the vitreous which will even be seen as floaters.

Risk factors

Factors which will increase your risk of floaters include:

Ø  Age over 50

Ø  Nearsightedness

Ø  Eye trauma

Ø  Complications from cataract surgery

Ø  Diabetic retinopathy

Ø  Eye inflammation

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