Some of us with Birdshot experience real problems with floaters. Most affected individuals manage to get used to floaters and find a way of seeing ‘past’ them, but for a minority, the floaters cause significant visual problems on a daily basis.

When we face this situation, we may be told that getting rid of the floaters by undergoing a vitrectomy may cause more problems than it solves, especially if we are in flare-up or have active inflammation, so few people are offered a vitrectomy. Vitrectomy is the surgical removal of the vitreous gel from the middle of the eye, where the floaters are.

This research study, which was conducted in Spain, evaluated the anatomical and functional outcomes of using the pars plana vitrectomy (PPV) in the treatment of vitreoretinal complications (floaters) of Birdshot. The pars plana is part of the uvea choroidea, one of the three layers that comprise the eye.

This was a small study, looking at 9 patients with 16 affected eyes who had received a pars PPV and the study concluded that PPV seems to be a safe and effective treatment of vitreoretinal complications in patients with Birdshot.

Obviously, this is a very small study and it is difficult to draw too many conclusions from it, but for those of us who are very badly affected by floaters, it may be something you wish to talk to your consultant about so you can fully understand both the risks and the benefits.

You can get full details of the study at: PMID: 21823933  URL – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21823933?dopt=Citation