Our practice motto is: ‘Visionary Eye Care is committed to providing the highest quality eye care by offering the latest technology and exemplary service.’ An example of this technology is the Optomap, a digital image that can capture an 82% view of your retina at one time. Dr. Gates and Dr. Metzger take an Optomap image of every patient, every year. Most eye diseases are silent and progressive, but with Optomap we can catch problems more quickly and easily. Below is a case from our office that demonstrates how even a healthy, baseline image can help direct our care.
Comprehensive, yearly eye exam of a healthy middle-aged patient. Optomap images showed healthy optic nerve heads.
6 months later, for a medical visit when the patient started noticing ‘spots and blacked out vision in the left eye.’
The edges of the optic nerve appeared blurry on the image, indicating swelling, which was also verified during the examination. A swollen optic nerve typically indicates a serious neurological problem: tumor, inflammation in the brain or spinal cord, extremely high blood pressure, blood clot, among other problems. The healthy image from 6 months prior helped the doctor confirm that this was a new and emergent issue, and to act urgently. We hope this case serves as an example to reiterate the importance of an annual Optomap image.