Last week I had an interesting case that I haven’t seen for a while. A patient came in complaining about wavy vision in his left eye. It started about 3 weeks ago and has progressively gotten worse. We performed the eye exam and the best corrected vision was 20/20 in his right eye and 20/50 in his left eye. When we performed an amsler grid test (a grid test to check for any distorted, wavy or missing lines), his central vision was affected. Upon closer evaluation on his dilated fundus exam, there was some swelling his left eye. We sent him to get and OCT done (a test where we take an ultrasound to check out his swelling) and it showed there was significant swelling in his macular. We diagnosed him with cystoid macular edema. Other differential diagnosis may include astigmatism, macular degeneration, macular hole or central serous chorioretinopathy.
Luckily for this gentleman, this condition is reversible and has a good prognosis. We will start this gentleman on some anti-inflammatory eye drops to decrease the inflammation. If this treatment is unsuccessful, then we may do some intraocular injection shots or laser treatments. If you are suffering from any wavy vision, please come into Avenue Eyecare for an evaluation.
Img source: mvretina.com
Dr. Sherman Tung, OD FAAO