Coat's Disease

I have never heard of Coat's Disease before this class. It is a rare condition of the eye. It is caused by abnormal development of the the blood vessels behind the retina. The retinal capillaries break open and leak serum from the blood into the back of the eye. This causes the retina to swell which can cause detachment of the retina. It is most common in males. It is a progressive disease that will affect a person's central vision. There is five stages of the disease and it almost always affects one eye, not both. Catching this disease early is very important. The later the stage, the more vision is lost. Treatments of the disease are Laser Therapy, Laser Photocoagulation or Cryotherapy. These treatments depend on the amount of leakage behind the eye. Patients in stages 1 through 3 can benefit from these treatments to restore some vision. Stages four and five have no possibility for vision recover because the amount of damage to the retina is too severe. With stage five, total blindness is usually the case and is not reversible. Currently there are various cancer drugs being used in clinical trials. Some doctors believe these drugs can stop new blood vessels from forming which could limit blood supply to the affected area. These studies are new and years away from being available to patients today.