Home > Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine > Retinal Detachment

Definition

Retinal detachment is a serious eye disorder in which the retina, a thin tissue of cells located in the back of the eye, separates from the underlying tissue layers.

Description

There are three layers of the eyeball. The outer, tough, white layer is called the sclera. Lining the sclera is the choroid, a thin membrane that supplies nutrients to part of the retina. The retina is located at the back of the eye and consists of three cellular layers.

The retina contains the light-sensitive receptors for sight and processes visual images. A retinal detachment occurs between the two outermost layers of the retina, the photoreceptor layer that receives light and the outermost pigmented epithelium. When a tear in the retina occurs, the fluids in the eye may leak and pull the retina out of place, or detach it from the layers. Because the choroid supplies the photoreceptors within the retina with...