Diseases & Conditions
Cataract:
Clouding of the normally clear human ocular lens.
Symptoms: Progressive foggy, hazy vision and sometimes glare.
Treatment: Glasses or surgery when vision is impaired enough to affect driving, reading or hobbies.
Macular Degeneration:
Deterioration of the central retina known as the macula, which assists our reading, driving and color vision.
Symptoms: Distortion of central vision, and may be progressive.
Treatment: Dry type is often controlled with large doses of vitamins. Wet type may require laser surgery and / or intraocular drug injections.
Open Angle Glaucoma:
Disease of the eye nerve which is diagnosed by characteristic changes in the nerve, often associated with increasing eye pressure.
Symptoms: In early to moderate stages there are often no symptoms and advanced stage leads to loss of vision including blindness.
Treatment: Treatment in early to moderate stages is quite successful and includes topical medication, sometimes laser and occasional incisional surgery.
Angle Closure Glaucoma:
Sudden onset of very high ocular pressure resulting in pain, redness and loss of vision due to compromised circulation of fluid in the front compartment of the eye.
Symptoms: Onset of pain, redness and loss of vision in a matter of hours or days.
Treatment: Medication initially, but definitively requires laser surgery.
Dry Eye:
There is inadequate tear production in either quantity or quality of natural tears.
Symptoms: Dryness, burning, itching, scratchy, gritty feeling.
Treatment: Over the counter artificial tears of many different types or prescription medication.
Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye):
White of the eyeball is red or injected due to infection, inflammation, or chemical or mechanical irritation.
Symptoms: Redness, discomfort, tearing, light sensitivity and discharge including pus.
Treatment: Treatment is appropriate for the cause, such as antibiotics for bacterial infection and an anti-viral for herpes.
Special Note: Highly contagious.
Strabismus (Misalignment):
Eyes are not parallel either for distance or for near and are, in fact, misaligned due to horizontal or vertical.
Symptoms: Blurred vision, mild to advanced.
Treatment: Includes regular glasses, prism glasses, eye exercise and eye muscle surgery.
Amblyopia (Lazy Vision):
Reduced vision in one eye due to, usually, misalignment of the eyes in early childhood. Sometimes this can occur due to an unbalanced focusing system between the two eyes.
Symptoms: Blurred vision, mild to advanced.
Treatment: Initial treatment may include glasses, patching, drops and surgery if there is significant misalignment between two eyes.
Drooping Eyelids (Blepharoptosis, Dermatochalsis, Browptosis):
Apparent drooping of the eyelid structure, brow with a fold of skin, or excessive eyelid skin.
Symptoms: Blockage of vision, heavy sensation of the eyelids and eye fatigue.
Treatment: Depending upon the severity, this may require surgery on the eyelid, eyelid itself or the eyebrow.
Glasses (Refraction Error):
The natural focus system is out of focus.
Symptoms: Nearsighted (blurred for distance) Astigmatism (blurred for near or far) Farsighted-Presbyopia (blurred for near).
Diabetes:
A dysfunction of the endocrine system controlling blood sugar.
Symptoms: Often there are no symptoms, but you will have variable vision when sugar is high or low. With advancing diabetes there may be blurred vision, loss of central vision and even blindness.
Treatment: The best treatment is tight control of the blood sugar requiring diet, exercise, medications and sometimes insulin. For eye involvement, this may include laser surgery or even intraocular surgery such as vitrectomy.
Headache:
Pain in and around the eye, face and head.
Symptoms: Pain which may be sharp, dull, throbbing and localized anywhere in the head and may or may not be associated with sight.
Treatment: Depending upon the cause of the headache, including change in glasses, eye misalignment, migraine, stress, tumor, etc.
Tia (Stroke):
Inadequate circulation to a specific part of the brain.
Symptoms: Weakness of the arm, leg, balance, speech, memory, etc.
Treatment: Directed to the cause of the compromised circulation and includes blood thinners, laser or surgery.
D. J. Kontra, M.D. & Associates
5802 Washington Avenue #102
Racine, WI 53406
Dennis Kontra, M.D., Karen Shimshak, M.D., Daryl Kruse, O.D.
Business: 262-886-9100 | Toll Free: 800-472-3005
E-Mail: info@drkontra.com
