Experts warn about pterygium (flesh walking in the eye), which is among the most insidious eye diseases: It progresses quite slowly and insidiously, and can cause serious vision loss.
Pterygium is sneaky and moving slowly
Stating that the pterygium (eye flesh) disease continues to progress while it is initially in a slightly veined structure, it causes the corneal layer to be pulled and causes astigmatism, the experts said, “With astigmatism, there is blurred vision. If it progresses to the pupil, it closes the visual axis and leads to permanent vision defects.”
Early diagnosis is important
Reminding that the disease, which is also known as meat walking in the eye among the people, causes complaints such as burning, stinging and sometimes bleeding during the emergence stage, experts said that the only permanent method for treatment is surgery. Drawing attention to the importance of early diagnosis, experts stated that drip treatment prevents eye drying and is used to correct the inflammation that may occur on the surface.
Why do they occur?
The development of pterygium and pinguecula often plays a role in the development of dry eyes, frequent exposure to wind, dust and ultraviolet rays.
What is the difference between them?
The pinguecula, also appears in the conjunctiva (the conjunctiva is a transparent membrane-shaped layer that covers the surface of the white part of the eye), which also appears in the form of a yellow patch or a bulge, and usually appears on the inner side of the eye above the white part. Pinguecula occurs with the accumulation of protein fat and / or calcium in the normal conjunctival tissue.
It is formed by the progression of the pterygium conjunctival tissue (usually caused by the pinducle) towards the surface of the cornea. This progression can stop at any stage or progress towards the corneal center, leading to serious vision problems.
Symptoms of pterygium and Pinguecula can be mild or severe to uncomfortable sizes. We can list them as follows:
- Redness and inflammation are especially seen during the growth of the pterygium.
- Blurred vision, dryness
- Itch
- Burning and stinging
- Foreign body sensation
- Tears
How pterygium is treated?
In the majority of cases, no treatment is required. If pterygium or Pinguecula reddens and causes stinging burning, it is possible to relieve it with eye drops and ointment.
In general, the reasons for applying for surgical treatment are:
- If it causes frequent redness and burning in the eye in dusty and sunny environments
- If there is an advanced astigmatism due to pterygium
- If the pterygium tends to move towards the center of the cornea
- If pterygium or Pinguecula is cosmetically disturbing the patient
The point to be considered about pterygium is that it is treated surgically without leaving permanent and irreversible effects on the cornea (astigmatic effect or covering the visual axis with pterygium).
How is the removal of pterygium by surgical method done?
In general, the biggest uneasiness of the patients is the recurrence of the pterygium after a while after the removal by surgery and progresses even worse.
It is usually surgically taken in two ways:
1- Graft-free pterygium excision
In this procedure, after the eye is thoroughly anesthetized with a special scalpel, the meat is removed by cutting the corneal bed.
2- Grafted pterygium excision
In this process, instead of the pterygium taken by the method we wrote above, a tissue patch containing stem cells taken from the upper part of the conjunctiva is sewn or glued with tissue adhesive.
Today, instead of non-graft pterygium excision, grafted pterygium excision is preferred, and technically, when the surgical procedure is performed carefully in experienced hands and if some drugs are used, the probability of recurrence, that is, the recurrence of the disease, can be reduced to less than 1%. However, we should not forget that the elimination of environmental factors is of great importance in reducing the risk of recurrence. You can sort them as follows:
– We need to protect the eyes from UV rays with appropriate sunglasses.
– It is necessary to protect the eyes from dusty environments with appropriate protective glasses.
– It is important to support the eyes in dry environments with artificial tear drops.