Retinal Inflammation & Crohn's

I'm curious to know, who told you that your eye condition is Crohn's related? Is the condition with your retina come on suddenly, or have you had issues for a long period of time? Are you taking any Crohn's meds?

I'm not sure that you can make a connection between Crohn's and your retinal inflammation, although, Crohn's sufferers often report of having other medical conditions. My Daughter for example has Blepharitis, which is also a condition of her eyes. We've been told that having an immune system disorder is a factor.

Hope your surgery goes well. Has the surgeon assured you that you'll can totally recover following the procedure?

Has your Crohn's been in remission or in flare?

vadreamer1 said...
I have significant inflammation and scar tissue in my right eye that will require surgery.

How serious is your scarring? What does your doctor say?

When I flared I had serious eye inflammation that disappeared when I went into remission. However years later I had several major eye surgeries following a botched treatment for my retinal detachment that was unrelated to my UC.

I was afraid of the major complication which was Proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) scarring. The only treatment option for PVR is more surgical intervention, which has a limited success rate that diminishes in patients with recurring PVR. I was afraid of losing my eye.

I hope your condition isn't serious and has no relevance with my experience trying to prevent PVR. But as an fyi this is what I found that helped reduce the chances of complications:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc2893657/

Of course I was taking lutein, zeaxanthin, vitamins etc. This particular article says that N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), an antioxidant used in a variety of clinical settings, protects rabbits from PVR scarring and helps prevent further retinal detachments.

So I made sure to take 500 mg of NAC in the morning and 500 mg at night while I was undergoing the healing process. They chose NAC because “NAC is a safe and inexpensive compound that is currently used in a variety of clinical applications.” The conclusion: “antioxidants may be a new approach to protect patients undergoing retinal surgery from developing detachments.”

I don't know if the NAC helped or not but I avoided PVR complications. I hope your condition isn't very serious and your doctor says there isn't any need to take NAC.

Here's my update. I had a Vitrectomy (surgical procedure where the fluid in your eye is removed and the scar tissue is peeled away from the retina) this past Friday. Surgery went well - I was awake for the entire thing. Eye drops will manage the inflammation. The scar tissue and inflammation were not only quite significant, but both impacted my vision; I hope that my post-surgical vision improves.

AND.... Crohn's didn't cause the eye problems, but having inflammation in my system was a contributing factor.

As for my Crohn's I have been on Humira for so long, I don't remember when I started. It keeps my condition under control. ≈