Will my child go blind?
Very few affected individuals go blind from retinoschisis. However, some men with retinoschisis have very limited reading vision and are "legally blind" because their visual acuity is less than 20/200 in both eyes. Acuity of 20/60 or better is generally required for a driver's license.M

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What is the progression rate of retinoschisis?
Generally, vision in retinoschisis is roughly stable between teenage years and late middle age. Vision can deteriorate during the childhood years. However, the vision that a teenager has with retinoschisis normally remains constant for many years. In older age a secondary macular degeneration can reduce visual acuity further.

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Will glasses help?
There are two parts to this answer. Retinoschisis is a rare disease of the nerve tissue. Glasses will not "repair" this nerve tissue damage. However, if a child is nearsighted or farsighted, glasses may improve the overall quality of vision.

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Is there any medicine or surgery that can help?
Currently, there are no medical or surgical treatments available for retinoschisis.

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What is senile retinoschisis?
Senile retinoschisis is the splitting of the retina as a result of aging. It can affect both men and women, and is not an genetic condition.

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What is the chance of my child having a retinal detachment?
A retinal detachment is when the retina pulls away from the eye wall. Retinoschisis predisposes one to retinal detachment. Approximately 5-15% of males with retinoschisis suffer a retinal detachment.

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Do women who carry the retinoschisis gene suffer impaired vision?
Women who carry the retinoschisis gene are called "genetic carriers". These carriers experience no vision abnormalities themselves, and their carrier status cannot be detected by clinical examination.

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How is retinoschisis diagnosed?
Retinoschisis is not a common eye disease, so many doctors have never seen a case of retinoschisis. The best possibility for obtaining an accurate diagnosis is to contact an ophthalmologist who specializes in retinal surgery.

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Is an electroretinogram (ERG) important for retinoschisis diagnosis?
An ERG in conjunction with an examination by a knowledgeable ophthalmologist is important for diagnosing retinoschisis. The electroretinogram assesses the function of nerve tissue inside the back of the eye. Retinoschisis causes characteristic changes to the ERG that can be detected by a specialist.

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If cures and treatments are not possible, is thorough diagnosis important?
Through careful diagnosis, a clinician can often establish the severity of the disease and make general predictions about future vision. Further, genetic counseling is possible only after careful diagnosis of affected family members. If an individual is unaffected, this can be determined with high reliability by a thorough examination and and ERG.

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Does retinoschisis affect anything other than vision?
At this time, doctors believe that retinoschisis only affects the retina; no other body system is affected by retinoschisis. Although retinoschisis affects the nerve tissue inside the eyes, no other nerve tissue in the body is affected.

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At what age can a child have an ERG?
Different doctors will give different answers to this question. At the University of Michigan W.K. Kellogg Eye Center, ERGs are routinely performed on children under 24 months of age without the use of general anesthesia. Some ERG centers use general anesthesia for all infant ERG testing. However, we find that this is not necessary. Performing ERGs on children between the ages of 2 and 5 can be difficult. Therefore, we encourage that testing be done before age 2 or after age 5. In general, after age 5, nearly all children can have an ERG without any difficulties.

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How frequently should my child be checked by an ophthalmologist?
All children, even those without retinoschisis, should have their vision checked yearly and glasses prescribed as necessary. The same is advised for children who have routine retinoschisis. For children who show schisis of the peripheral retina, more frequent examinations are advised. These should be conducted by a subspecialty trained retinal surgeon in case a detachment which requires surgery occurs. Thus, follow-up intervals are best determined by the doctor who is following each individual child.

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Will vitamin A help with retinoschisis?
Probably not. Vitamin A may have benefits for other genetic retinal diseases, particularly in cases of retinitis pigmentosa where the retinal nerve cells are slowly dying. Retinoschisis is quite different from retinitis pigmentosa, since the retinal cells in retinoschisis are mechanically disrupted but are not thought to be dying.

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Is retinoschisis a form of macular degeneration?
Yes. The macula is at the back of the eye at the central fixation point of vision. Since retinoschisis affects the retinal cells in the macula, technically it is a form of macular degeneration. However, there are several different types of macular degeneration. Thus, people who do not have retinoschisis are often diagnosed with macular degeneration

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Is color vision affected by retinoschisis?
Generally, color vision is adequate or good even with retinoschisis. Other forms of macular degeneration can severely affect color vision. However, with retinoschisis, color vision remains normal for day-to-day life, even though specialized medical testing may indicate poor color discrimination.

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Is night vision affected by retinoschisis?
Night vision is mildly affected by retinoschisis. This means that overall night lighting needs to be brighter at night or in a movie theater for retinoschisis patients to see as well as possible. Fortunately, the night vision impairment does not progress to any significant degree and will not be worse in middle age than as a teenager.

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Can retinoschisis be confused with other eye diseases?
Unfortunately, yes. We have many examples of affected relatives who were diagnosed with "lazy eye" rather than retinoschisis. Therefore, if retinoschisis is in your family and you are diagnosed with lazy eye, you should have a specialty diagnosis. Still, a lazy eye can occur independently of retinoschisis.

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