SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
DEPARTMENT OF OPHTHALMOLOGY

OPHTHALMOLOGY ROTATION
JULY 2021

ASSIGNMENT 1:
THE MOST VITAL PART OF THE EYE

Submitted by:
VALENCERINA, Djan Kurvie R.

Submitted to:
Dr. Joanne Balderas
The retina is an essential part of the eye that enables vision. It’s a thin layer of tissue that covers
approximately 65 percent of the back of the eye, near the optic nerve. Its job is to receive light
from the lens, convert it to neural signals and transmit them to the brain for visual recognition.
There are different types of cells present in the retina which consist of mainly rods and cons and
are called photoreceptor cells.

The working of retina:

After the light rays have been refracted by the cornea and lens,
 Light energy first penetrates the innermost layers of the retina before finally stimulating
the photoreceptors
 When light stimulates the rods and the cones, these are converted into an electrical
impulse by phototransduction (conversion of light to electrical energy)
2. The outer nuclear layer is nothing else but the nuclei of the rods and cones.
3. The generated electrical impulses are then transferred to the horizontal, bipolar, and
amacrine cells via a synapse layer called outer plexiform layer.
 These group of cells serve to integrate and amplify the electrical impulses generated by
the rods and cones.
4. The inner nuclear layer are nuclei of the above-mentioned cells.
5. These signals are passed through another synapse layer called inner plexiform layer to the
ganglion cells which again further amplify and integrate the electrical impulses from the inner
nuclear layer.
6. The electrical impulse passes the nerve fiber layer, which are actually the axons of the
ganglion cells.
7. These nerve fibers ultimately transmitted to the visual pathway via optic nerve.

Due to the retina’s vital role in vision, damage to it can cause permanent blindness. Conditions
such as retinal detachment, where the retina is abnormally detached from its usual position, can
prevent the retina from receiving or processing light. This prevents the brain from receiving this
information, thus leading to blindness.