What is Retinitis Pigmentosa ?
Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a rare, inherited disease in which the light-sensitive retina of the eye slowly and progressively degenerates. Eventually, blindness results.
Retinitis Pigmentosa Symptoms and Signs
The first signs of retinitis pigmentosa usually occur in early childhood, when both eyes typically are affected. Night vision can be poor, and the field of vision may begin to narrow. During later stages of retinitis pigmentosa, only a small area of central vision remains, along with slight peripheral vision.
What Causes Retinitis Pigmentosa?
Not much is known about what causes retinitis pigmentosa, except that the disease is inherited. Even if your mother and father don't have retinitis pigmentosa, you can still have the eye disease when at least one parent carries an altered gene associated with the trait.
A shrinking field of vision is one of the early warning signs of retinitis pigmentosa.In fact, about 1 percent of the population can be considered carriers of recessive genetic tendencies for retinitis pigmentosa that, in certain circumstances, can be passed on to a child who then develops the disease (Ophthalmology 2004).
Rather than being considered a single disease, retinitis pigmentosa instead is viewed as a group of diseases affecting how light-sensitive cells in the back of the eye (retina) function.
Rods — the light-sensing retinal cells that are responsible for vision in dim light — gradually deteriorate until seeing at night becomes more difficult.