What is retinitis pigmentosa?

Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited eye disease that affects the ability of man to see at night. It also affects their peripheral or vision side. This genetic disorder begins with reduced night vision, but also proceeds to reduce peripheral vision. As a human vision decreases quickly, they are usually related to their genetic make -up, so they differ in different people. When they degenerate, the patient is losing more and more vision, because photoreceptors are cells that capture and process light. The rod cells help people see images from peripheral view and see pictures in dark or mattly lit areas. The conical cells are in the center of the retina and help people see visual details and color. The cells of the rod and cones convert light into electrical pulses that are transmitted to the brain - a tie -free place from which people "see". The rod cells usually degenerate first causing rod-Cone dystrophy, which in turn causes night blindness. Patients with night blindness do not satisfy the darkness welland mattly lit environment.

As the disease progresses, patients start to lose side vision and can experience a circle of vision with small islands of vision on their very distant periphery on their middle periphery. Other patients gain the tunnel vision as if they were looking at the world through a tube. Some patients maintain a small amount of central vision throughout their lives.

Another form of retinitis pigmentosa, called dystrophy Cone-Rod, first affects the patient's central vision. This cannot be repaired using glasses or contact lenses. The suffering may also lose the ability of the perceive color. As the disease progresses, patients also lose peripheral vision and develop night blindness.

This disease is usually recognized in childhood and the degree of vision loss varies in the patient.