Staphyloma is a protrusion of the eyeball caused by severe nearsightedness or other factors. It can damage vision and has no cure, but retinal detachment can be treated with laser and myopia with corrective lenses.
Staphyloma is an abnormal protrusion of the eyeball. The condition can be mild or severe, depending on the severity of the bump and its location on the eyeball. In many cases, staphyloma is a condition resulting from severe nearsightedness as a result of severe eyeball stretching. In such cases, the weakened uveal tissue bulges out of the eye due to a thinning or weak sclera. There is currently no medical treatment for staphyloma. Many cases of staphyloma occur in the back of the eye and go unnoticed until the patient complains of vision loss or a medical exam exposes the condition.
The most common cause of staphyloma is severe and progressive myopia. Also known as nearsightedness, nearsightedness usually results from an abnormally elongated eyeball. The oval shape of the eyeball stretches the vision-producing tissue at the back of the eye, called the retina, and thins the eyeball’s outer protective membrane, called the sclera. The liquid gel-like material that fills the eye, called the vitreous gel, and the uveal tissue that supports the shape of the eye bulge out of place. Other less common causes of staphyloma are trauma, scleritis, glaucoma, infection and inflammation.
In many cases, staphyloma occurs in the back or back of the eyeball. Anterior staphyloma occurs within the cornea and is often the result of an eye infection, inflammation, or a side effect of eye surgery. In anterior staphyloma, the weak cornea cannot hold the contents of the eye and the corneal tissue swells out of the front of the eye. The protrusion appears black or purplish-blue, due to the dark color of the uveal layers of the eye.
Staphyloma is extremely rare among African Americans and Caucasians, but occurs predominantly among Asians and Middle Easterners. An eye exam may reveal the presence of staphyloma, evident by a patient’s axial length of more than 1.02 inches (26.5 mm), esophoria in which the axis of one eye deviates widely from the axis of the other, and chronic glaucoma. A more definitive dilated fundus eye exam may show posterior globe atrophy, liquefaction and excessive floaters in the vitreous gel of the eye, retinal cracks or detachments, and cracks in the inner globe membrane.
By itself, staphyloma is not harmful or fatal. The condition, however, can damage vision in patients whose vision is already severely impaired with degenerative myopia. Medical professionals do not currently offer cures or treatments for staphyloma, but they try to fix retinal detachment with laser treatment and myopia with corrective lenses if possible.
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