When one of the blood veins carrying blood to the retina of the eye becomes clogged, you may lose your vision.
This condition frequently occurs unexpectedly and without warning. This is referred to as central retinal artery blockage (CRAO).
The retina is a layer of nerve tissue located at the back of your inner eye that detects light. Your retina, like a tiny video camera, converts images into electrical signals.
These signals are carried to your brain via your optic nerve. A blood artery blockage in your retina might be quite dangerous.
A blood clot or cholesterol deposit in your blood artery usually causes the blockage. This is a critical condition. You should seek medical assistance right away.
A stroke could occur if a blood clot breaks free and travels to the brain. The aftereffects of CRAO can be severe and occur quickly.
Most of the time, you will experience some vision loss. Even after treatment, your vision may not improve.
The symptoms of CRAO are straightforward to identify. They are as follows: abrupt blindness in one of your eyes, full blurring of vision in one eye, and gradual loss of vision in one eye over a few weeks.
The effects could last a few seconds or several minutes. They could also be permanent. If you simply experience partial blurring or loss of vision, you most likely have branch retinal artery blockage, which we’ll go over later.
CRAO is a potentially fatal ocular emergency that can result in blindness. CRAO is the ocular equivalent of a stroke.
CRAO must be treated in the same way as any other vascular end-organ ischemia illness. That is, to try to reperfuse ischemic tissue as soon as possible in order to prevent a cascade of secondary inflammatory processes from occurring.
The retina receives blood from two sources. In CRAO, HBOT may allow the secondary, choroidal circulation to provide the oxygen needs of the entire retina.
Because CRAO is frequently temporary, it may allow the retina to survive the duration of blocked blood supply.
The oxygen saturation of retinal venous hemoglobin increased from 58% in ambient air to 94% in a 100% hyperbaric oxygen environment.
HBOT is regarded as acceptable, safe, and successful in increasing the partial pressure of oxygen delivery to ischemic tissue until spontaneous or aided reperfusion occurs.
The retina consumes the most oxygen of any organ in the body. This increases the likelihood of retinal damage if oxygen-rich blood cannot reach it.
The extra oxygen provided by hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps keep the retina healthy until normal blood flow returns.
In a dedicated room, you will breathe pure oxygen. The extra oxygen in the blood might cause the vessels in your retina to dilate. This can help your eyesight improve.
The effectiveness of this depends on the type of blockage. It also depends on how quickly therapy begins following the formation of the obstruction.
Because vision loss is an emergency, the oxygen treatment that is most likely to be successful in restoring vision is one that is started within the first eight hours after the onset of visual loss and that is maintained until vision is fully recovered.
When administered within the first 24 hours after surgery, HBOT has also been demonstrated to produce favorable advantages to patients.
