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【Eye-related stories】 About the vitreous

The vitreous humor is a transparent, jelly-like tissue that fills the space between the lens and the retina in the eye, taking up about 80% of the inside of the eye.

The vitreous body is mostly made up of water, but also contains other components such as hyaluronic acid and collagen.

The vitreous mainly plays the following functions.

1.Keep the shape of the eyeball
→ It is gel-like and elastic, stabilizing the pressure inside the eye and maintaining its round shape.

2.Ensure the light path
→ The vitreous is transparent, allowing light to reach the retina smoothly

3.Support the retina
→ The vitreous body lightly contact with the retina, helping to prevent it from detaching.

Aging and illness can cause changes in the vitreous humor, which can pull on the retina and become cloudy, leading to various eye diseases such as the following:

  • ・Retinal detachment: The vitreous body can pull on the retina, causing a tear in the retina and resulting in detachment.
  • ・Macular hole: A hole can form in the macula when the vitreous body pulls on the macula.
  • ・Vitreous hemorrhage: The vitreous itself does not contain blood vessels, but bleeding from other parts of the body can accumulate within the vitreous.
  • ・Vitreous opacification: Proteins in the vitreous may denature and cause clouding, which can lead to floaters.

To treat these diseases, vitreous surgery is performed to remove the cloudy vitreous and the membrane attached to the retina.

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