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Vitreolysis laser treatment for vitreous floaters

Don't let floaters limit your vision.

If you suffer from vitreous floaters, you know how annoying the visual disturbances caused by these spiderweb-like and cloud-like shadows that follow your eye movements and don’t disappear can be.

It can be said that each of us has experienced or will experience these floating spots, known as “flies”, caused by vitreous floaters at some point in our lives. For most people, they are a minor inconvenience, but for some, they can be a serious problem that can negatively affect daily life and in some cases (due to their size and location) can even damage vision.

Laser treatment for vitreous floaters is known worldwide as vitreolysis. It is a minimally invasive laser treatment that treats eye floaters and can delay or prevent the need for surgery. During the therapy, the visual discomfort caused by floating spots is eliminated (or reduced), with the aim of achieving functional improvement when normal daily activities are no longer limited by eye cloudiness.

  • moving spots float in front of the eyes
  • they come in various sizes and shapes, the edges are not pronounced
  • they follow eye movements and do not disappear
  • they are gray or black in color

No more floating spots – vitreous body clarification laser therapy

Laser therapy is performed in the office of a laser ophthalmologist. One treatment session can last from 15–45 minutes.
During the procedure, nanosecond laser pulses convert the collagen and hyaluronic acid molecules in the eye cloudiness into gas, thus destroying the black spot and/or reducing it to a size that does not interfere with vision. In case of large cloudiness, repeated therapy may be necessary.

If you have large, black spots with blurred edges that float in front of your eyes and do not disappear with eye movements, you may be eligible for laser vitreous clearance therapy. In most cases, when a person constantly sees moving shadows in front of their eyes, caused by thickening of the vitreous, as well as the formation of fibers and/or clouding, laser therapy is very effective.

It should be noted that there are several additional factors, such as age, the appearance of various symptoms and the characteristics of the spots, which can determine whether laser therapy is the best treatment option. Before treatment, an examination by a laser ophthalmologist should be performed to determine whether laser therapy is possible.

Eye floaters

Eye floaters are small thickenings that float in the vitreous and cast shadows on the retina (the light-sensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eye). In the case of eye floaters, these are the shadows that move across a person’s field of vision and interfere with vision. They may appear as gray or black dots, spider webs, broken lines, or ring-like circles.

The vitreous humor is a clear, jelly-like substance that fills the space between the lens and the retina.
In young people, this jelly-like substance is completely transparent, but as the eye ages, it can deteriorate, losing its shape and becoming liquefied. As the stable vitreous humor disappears, collagen fibers break down and bind together, forming common fibers. It is these fibers that cast shadows on the retina and look like spots, lines, or spider webs, often called “flies.”

In many cases, as the eye ages, the vitreous humor can completely separate from the retina. This process is known as vitreous detachment. It is often associated with a sudden increase in the number of clouding of the eye.

Frequently Asked Questions

Floaters are more common in myopic patients. After the age of 50, they can appear after flashes, after injuries or inflammations. There is no age limit.

Anyone who sees floating spots, flies or streaks before their eyes should have an in-depth retinal examination by a laser ophthalmologist. It is important to distinguish that a floater is one that moves with eye movements (fog is not a floater). Floaters can be of different sizes and shapes. They do not disappear after using drops.

During the therapy, the laser is focused on the front surface of the eye cloud and, emitting a short, three nanosecond (0.000000003 s) energy charge, creates a small plasma “bubble” - it turns the eye cloud into a small gas bubble, thus destroying the black spot and/or reducing it to a size that does not interfere with vision.

In the case of large cloudiness, repeated therapy may be necessary.

It is important to remember that the laser energy used during laser therapy does not just break the eye cloud into smaller pieces, but transforms it into a gaseous substance, which is then absorbed into the eye, so the cloudiness no longer interferes with vision.

Unlike vision correction surgeries, which aim to improve visual acuity, the goal of vitreous body clarification laser therapy is to improve the quality of vision. In most cases, patients do not experience any improvement in their visual acuity after laser treatment, as the optics of the eye are not altered during the procedure. Instead, the aim of this procedure is to remove visual obstructions caused by opacities in the eye, thereby significantly improving the quality of vision rather than acuity.

Most patients experience a 60-90% reduction in the size and/or number of opacities after vitreous body clearing laser treatment. However, each eye is different, and there are a number of factors that can affect the outcome of the procedure in different ways, such as some opacities being too close to the retina and not safe to treat, so laser treatment is not recommended for such opacities.

It is also important to note that large vitreous bodies may require multiple treatment sessions.

The number of opacities to be treated depends on their type and the amount of laser energy required to treat them (to convert the opacities to gas). To ensure safe and effective treatment and minimal patient discomfort, in cases where the energy level delivered to the eye exceeds a predetermined value, treatment of the remaining opacities should be postponed until the next session.

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