Exact Answer: 24 To 30 Hours
In the old days, there weren’t many facilities to cure diseases and illnesses. Yet, nowadays, technology has developed a great deal and this development has helped many fields to work a great deal. One field among them is the medical industry. In the field of medicine, computers have helped in recording details and technology has helped very well even in surgical operations.
Operating on very sensitive parts of the body, focusing on internal organs are very easy with technical instruments and equipment, and there is very little space for error when these equipment are used.
Technical instruments make fewer errors than humans, and hence nowadays, almost every superficial and internal surgery operation is now completed using this equipment with very good precision. One surgery that would have been impossible in the olden days to complete without this advanced technology is retinal detachment surgery.
How Long Before Retinal Detachment Causes Blindness?
| All about retinal detachment | Time |
| Vision loss before retinal detachment | Immediately after retinal detachment |
| Vision loss after retinal detachment | 1 day |
| Recovery time after retinal detachment treatment | 2 to 6 weeks |
Retinal detachment treatment is a surgery that is operated on the eye, to clear up the blindness. There is a lot to learn about retinal detachment, but one should certainly know about the vision loss before the retinal detachment, the recovery time, and how to take care of the eyes before and after the treatment. According to doctors, when retinal detachment happens, the vision will start getting blurry, which will lead to blindness. After retinal detachment, if the treatment is a success, the vision will be blurred for a while. The recovery process will take about 2 to 6 weeks counting right from the day of the treatment.
The innermost layer of the wall of the eye is the retina, made up of very sensitive and light cells. These cells are called rods and cones. These rods and cones are used to detect colors, patterns, and shapes and when these cells don’t work properly, color blindness happens and vision can also become blurry. These cells will be supported by a vitreous liquid that will fill the eyeball.
The outer layer of the retina is attached to the choroid, the middle layer of the eye. The choroid is filled with blood vessels and the nerve fibers that leave the retina bundle form the optic nerve, which transfers the visual information. Only after the information is processed, the brain will understand what the eyes see and will coordinate other parts of the body according to it.
Why Does Blindness Happen That Long Before Retinal Detachment?
Retinal detachment happens when the retina attached to the middle layer of the eye, the choroid, starts slowly pulling away. When this happens, the supply of oxygen and nutrients gets cut off. This can blur the vision, cutting off the oxygen and blood supply too. Once the retina gets detached, it will not function, and this can lead to loss of vision completely.
There are different causes for retinal detachment. The most common cause is aging. As a person ages, the vitreous gel will start shrinking and this can lead to tearing at one point. Tearing due to the shrinking and weakening of vitreous gel happens especially in the weakest point of the retina, and once a tear happens, the fluid will get collected in the gap. This fluid leakage will start reducing the adhesion that connects and keeps the retina attached to the choroid. In the end, this could lead to complete detachment.
In the beginning, the vision will start getting blurry as the fluid starts filling up, and complete blindness will be the end when the retina gets detached completely.
Conclusion
Some are at high risk of retinal detachment more than others, like those who have undergone cataract surgery, and still include near-sighted people, and literally anybody who has had a severe eye injury. There are symptoms that indicate the onset of retinal detachment. They are quite painless. When retinal tears happen, there will be sensations of flashing lights in the affected eyes. Different sorts of dark floaters and blurry vision will also follow after a while.
After complete detachment, a dark shadow will be cast over the peripheral vision, which then starts progressing into complete vision loss. There is no exact answer about when the blindness will start setting before the retinal detachment. It can take about days to weeks for a complete retinal detachment to happen.
