Solar retinopathy is damage to the eye

Human eye

The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

's retina

Retina

The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...

, particularly the macula

Macula

The macula or macula lutea is an oval-shaped highly pigmented yellow spot near the center of the retina of the human eye. It has a diameter of around 5 mm and is often histologically defined as having two or more layers of ganglion cells...

, from prolonged exposure to solar radiation. It usually occurs due to staring at the sun

Sungazing

Sungazing is a practice that includes gazing at the sun for nourishment or as a spiritual practice.Looking into the sun is dangerous, and can cause solar retinopathy and lead to permanent eye damage or blindness.-Purpose:...

 or viewing a solar eclipse

Solar eclipse

As seen from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun as viewed from a location on Earth. This can happen only during a new moon, when the Sun and the Moon are in conjunction as seen from Earth. At least...

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Pathophysiology

Although it is frequently claimed that the retina is burned by looking at the sun, retinal damage appears to occur primarily due to photochemical injury rather than thermal injury.

Signs and symptoms

• Long-term reduced visual acuity
  Visual acuity
  Visual acuity is acuteness or clearness of vision, which is dependent on the sharpness of the retinal focus within the eye and the sensitivity of the interpretative faculty of the brain....
  
  
• Central scotoma
  Scotoma
  A scotoma is an area of partial alteration in one's field of vision consisting of a partially diminished or entirely degenerated visual acuity which is surrounded by a field of normal - or relatively well-preserved - vision.Every normal mammalian eye has a scotoma in its field of vision, usually...
  
  

Vision loss

Vision loss

Vision loss or visual loss is the absence of vision where it existed before, which can happen either acutely or chronically .-Ranges of vision loss:...

 due to solar retinopathy is typically reversible, lasting for as short as one month to over one year.

Epidemiology

In a 1998 review of 26 patients with solar retinopathy, 60% reported a history of sungazing

Sungazing

Sungazing is a practice that includes gazing at the sun for nourishment or as a spiritual practice.Looking into the sun is dangerous, and can cause solar retinopathy and lead to permanent eye damage or blindness.-Purpose:...

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