Your eye has many different pieces vital pieces, each playing a different role for our vision. It's a delicate balance- the light transferring, relayed information, all for our brain to process what we see today. During a retina evaluation, many patients wonder what important role this area of the eye plays in their vision. The retina plays a vital role in your vision. It only has one job and a very important one, it receives light that the lens has focused, converts the light into neural signals, and send these signals on to the brain for visual recognition. The retina processes light throug ..read more

Floaters are a common sight for many people, the first appearance can be startling. This is common in complain in middle aged and elderly patients. Floaters can be a warning sign of trouble in the eye, especially when they suddenly appear or increase in frequency. Floaters is a term to describe specks, threads, or cobweb-like images that drift along your line of vision. These specks occur in the vitreous humor, the clear, jelly-like substance in the main chamber of your eye located between your lens and your retina. When you’re young, the vitreous is clear. As you age, the vitreous degenerates ..read more

An intravitreal (pronounced in tra VIT re al) injection is a procedure to place a medication directly into the space in the back of the eye called the vitreous cavity, which is filled with a jelly-like fluid called the vitreous humor gel. The procedure is usually performed by one of our trained retina specialists, doctors Geeta Lalwani or Vlad Matei, in our comfortable office setting. We offer intravitreal injections at our locations in Boulder, Denver, Fort Collins, and Longmont. Intravitreal Injections such as Eylea or Avastin are drugs used to treat wet age-related macular degeneration (AM ..read more

What are some of the eye conditions people are at higher risk for as they age? Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD) about 15% in those 65-80, 35% in those over 80) The biggest risk factors for age related macular degeneration are: age, light-colored skin, family history, and smoking. Of these, the only modifiable risk factor is smoking cigarettes! Approximately 85% of cases of macular degeneration are considered “dry,” meaning no leaking blood vessels within the macula (a small central area of the retina with the highest density of photoreceptor cells and responsible for central vision). T ..read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWo0WtP_rwo To make an appointment with either Geeta Lalwani, MD, or Vlad Matei, MD, of Rocky Mountain Retina Associates call 303.900.8507 or please visit our Appointment Request page ..read more

Fostering the success of future generations is the key to improving diversity within the field of retina. We have all been fortunate in our careers to find great mentors who have helped us maximize our achievements, and we have also been in situations where perhaps a different type of mentor could have been a huge asset. Young retina specialists may struggle to find their voice and position within the field, especially if they don’t see themselves represented in leadership and behind the podium. Dr. Geeta Lalwani sat down with some of the best mentors in retina to discuss what it really mean ..read more

Colorado and the Denver Metro region has struggled with air pollution for the last few years, ranking number one in air pollution amongst major cities in the world on a Saturday afternoon in 2021. Weather patterns, fire, pollutant output from traffic and factories and other human behaviors have made air pollution more common, obstructing our views of the front range. The particulate matter that pollutes air is too small to see with the human eye. Collectively, those particles cause haze and carry toxins. Air pollution can cause symptoms including: inflammation in the airways, headaches, reduc ..read more

At Rocky Mountain Retina Associates, many of the conditions treated may be effectively corrected with surgery. We know that surgery is a nerve-racking topic, one that our doctors are dedicated to covering, in great length, during a consultative appointment. In this blog we wanted to cover the basics of retina surgery and explain what each procedure aims to achieve, while sharing the conditions each procedure works to effectively treat. Vitrectomy A surgical procedure undertaken by a specialist where the vitreous humor gel that fills the eye cavity is removed to provide better access to the re ..read more

The relentlessly increasing worldwide cases of diabetic retinopathy continues to fuel strong interest in improving the efficacy and durability of therapy. Beginning in the 1970s, for about 30 years laser photocoagulation was the only therapy for diabetic retinopathy (DR.) Subsequently, intravitreal steroids were the only pharmacological treatment until intravitreal anti-VEGF agents became widely available. Anti-VEGF agents were a game-changer and they’ve been the mainstay of DR/diabetic macular edema treatment for about 15 years. Various types of molecules with different vascular endothelial ..read more

New research from ophthalmologists shows that our eyes are rapidly changing as we adapt to screen use on smartphones and computers. Our eyes are supposed to stop growing in our teens yet with extended periods of time using screens, they are continuing to grow. When we spend time focusing on things at near, such as phones and tablets, our eyes start to elongate. This prevents our eyes from bending the light as it should. Elongation results in Myopia, another term used for near-sightedness, which causes our distance vision to become blurry. Myopia affects half of adults in the United States, tw ..read more