Retinal Detachment Can Steal Your Sight—Here’s How to Catch It Early

Sudden flashes of light. Floating specks in your vision. A creeping shadow that seems to come out of nowhere. These could be warning signs of retinal detachment—a serious eye condition that can cause permanent vision loss if not promptly treated.

The good news is that if retinal detachment is caught early, it’s often treatable with a quick, in-office procedure. Knowing what to look for can help protect your sight.

The retina is a thin layer of tissue that lines the inside of your eye. It captures light and sends signals to your brain, allowing you to see. When the retina separates from its underlying supportive layers, that connection is broken, leading to blurred vision, dark shadows, or even blindness if left untreated.

Usually, retinal detachment begins with a small tear or hole in the retina. This can cause fluid to seep underneath and lift the retina away from its base, causing it to detach. The first signs of a tear may be brief flashes of light or dark specks drifting across your vision.

“If we catch a retinal tear, early we can often fix it with a laser procedure in the office that takes just a few minutes,” says Edward Lim, MD, a Yale Medicine ophthalmologist. “But if you wait, the tear can turn into a full detachment.”

People with a detachment often describe it as looking through water or they may notice a dark shadow entering their sight, Dr. Lim says. “That shadow may move toward the center of their vision, which is called the macula, and once it’s affected, the problem becomes an emergency,” he says.

The retina is a remarkable part of the eye. Shaped like a sphere, your eye is coated with this delicate membrane. The retina is made of cells similar to those in your brain—and like brain cells, once they’re damaged, they rarely regenerate. Protecting your retina is important because even a small injury to the retina can have lasting or permanent consequences for your vision.

When light enters your eye, it passes through the lens and strikes the retina, which transforms light signals into electrical impulses that travel along the optic nerve to your brain. If sections of the retina pull away, or detach, from the back of the eye, this signal chain is disrupted. That’s when vision problems begin, which can range from blurry patches to a total loss of sight in the affected area.

The inside of the eye is filled with a solid ball of gel called vitreous. In younger people, this vitreous is relatively firm and stable. But with time, it naturally becomes more watery and begins to collapse inward. This process is normal and harmless for most people, but it can lead to “floaters,” which are small specks or blobs that drift across your field of vision.

“I describe them as anything that's dark and moving in your vision. It can be a comma shape, it can be an oval, or a line. For some people, it’s like a veil or looking through film,” Dr. Lim says. “Often, floaters settle down and become less noticeable.”

Along with floaters, some people may see bursts of light, known as “flashers,” which often appear as arcs or brief sparks of brightness in the peripheral vision, he adds. “These are anything that is light-colored,” Dr. Lim says. “It may be a real fast flash or an arc—everything turns white or is a light color for a moment.”

While floaters and flashes are often part of the normal aging process, they can sometimes signal a more serious issue. If the vitreous is firmly attached to the retina, its collapse might cause it to yank on the tissue and lead to a tear, which can then bring on flashers and floaters that don’t resolve.

A retinal tear, Dr. Lim explains, can be treated in an ophthalmology office with either a laser or freezing method that seals the tear.

If a retinal tear is not promptly treated, it can progress to a retinal detachment. In this condition, the retina completely lifts away from its normal position, leading to sudden vision changes or vision loss.

“We measure time in days, when it comes to retinal detachment,” says Dr. Lim. “There is a window—roughly zero to three days—where quickly reattaching the retina, especially if the macula is involved, can result in a much better outcome. After that, the chances of full vision recovery decline rapidly.”

Once the retina has been detached for too long, the cells may start to deteriorate. The earlier that retinal detachment is diagnosed, the more effectively it can be treated. Dr. Lim stresses the importance of calling an eye care provider right away.

Treatment for retinal detachment depends on the location and severity of the detachment. It usually requires surgery, which may be one of the following procedures:

• Pneumatic retinopexy: A gas bubble is injected into the eye and positioned over the tear. The body’s natural “pump” removes fluid from under the retina while laser or freezing seals the hole.

• Scleral buckle: A flexible band is placed around the outside of the eyeball to gently push the wall of the eye inward, closing the tear from the outside. This “buckling” can stay in place permanently.

• Vitrectomy: In this approach, the vitreous gel is removed, along with any membranes pulling on the retina. A bubble of gas or silicone oil may be inserted to keep the retina reattached while it heals. Vitrectomy can be combined with scleral buckle for more complex cases.

Each procedure aims to restore the retina back to its original position, preserve vision, and limit further damage.

While retinal detachment can happen to anyone, certain factors can increase your risk. These include being nearsighted, family history of retinal detachment, and previous eye trauma, even if it happened years earlier. Prior eye surgeries, such as cataract surgery, can also raise the risk, along with certain eye conditions, such as inflammatory eye diseases, tumors, or certain other types of conditions.

It's also important to note that someone can have a retinal tear or detachment and not experience any symptoms. That’s why regular dilated eye exams are so important—especially if you have any of the risk factors above. An eye doctor can often spot a problem before it leads to more serious vision loss.