vitreous detachment

vitreous detachment

n.

The separation of the peripheral vitreous humor from the retina.

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vitreous detachment 

Separation of the vitreous body from the internal limiting membrane of the retina due to shrinkage from degenerative or inflammatory conditions, trauma, progressive myopia, old age, diabetes and in aphakic eyes in which the lens extraction was intracapsular. The most common cases are elderly individuals in whom the posterior part of the vitreous, which becomes liquid, detaches from the internal limiting membrane (called posterior vitreous detachment, PVD). Symptoms are flashes, floaters and photopsia because as the eye moves the vitreous body comes into contact with the retina. The condition is sometimes associated with retinal tears and retinal detachment. See retinal break; syneresis.