Your health care provider will figure out the best treatment for you based on:
Your age
Your overall health and medical history
How sick you are
How well you can handle specific medicines, procedures, or therapies
How long the condition is expected to last
Your opinion or preference
The symptoms of CRAO sometimes look like other medical problems. Always see your health care provider for a diagnosis.
Doctors sometimes use a laser to fix the blockage. Experts say that if you arrive at the hospital with at least 20/40 vision, you will likely have fairly good eyesight later on. But if your vision in the eye is 20/200 or worse, the outlook for recovery is not good.
Some people have been treated with high pressure (hyperbaric) oxygen. The retina takes in more oxygen than any other organ in the body. This makes the retina more likely to be harmed if a blockage keeps oxygen-rich blood from reaching it.
In many cases, hyperbaric oxygen therapy can give enough extra oxygen to keep the retina healthy until normal blood flow returns. You will breathe pure oxygen in a special room. The extra oxygen in the blood can sometimes cause the arteries in your retina to get wider. This can help your eyesight get better.
How well this works depends on the type of blockage. It also depends on how quickly therapy begins after the blockage forms. This therapy may work best if started within 8 hours after the blockage begins.
In other cases, your doctor might try to open up the retinas manually. He or she will do this by massaging the affected area. Or he or she may use a clot-busting drug such as a tissue-plasminogen activator or t-PA. Several other treatments have been tried but they don’t work as well.