What are the causes and consequences of a vitreous spill?
Advanced age, myopia, trauma and eye infections are factors that increase the risk of this type of landslides
The vitreous humor is a transparent gel that fills the inner cavity of the eye. This gel has an envelope called hyaloids. At any given time, the hyaloid separates from the wall of the retina; It is the so-called vitreous detachment. This is not a disease and it does not usually take away vision.
The risk factors are age (usually the separation occurs between 55 and 80 years), very high myopia, eye trauma and inflammatory processes.
In most cases, the separation of the vitreous is a physiological and benign process. The normal thing is that it passes without incidents, therefore it does not require any type of treatment except the periodic evaluation by a retina specialist ophthalmologist of the separation process.
Exceptionally, the adhesion of the hyaloid to the retina at some point is so intense that in the process of separation of the vitreous the retina is torn. A retinal tear is then produced which, if not diagnosed in time, can cause retinal detachment. On other occasions, when the hyaloid separates, small blood vessels rupture, causing hemorrhage in the vitreous.
This is not contagious, and therefore, does not pass from one eye to another; but all the eyes with the years will develop it. It is important that those people who have had tears or hemorrhages with the separation of the vitreous in one of their eyes are attentive to the appearance of the symptoms in the other eye, because the risk of suffering from these problems is greater.
