Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Başkent Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi (Adana Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi) Göz Anabilim Dalı, Adana
Başkent Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Göz Anabilim Dalı, Adana In the recent years, geriatric population and expected lifetime increase continually. Geriatric medicine has been focused on the biologic and physiologic changes that develop due to ageing. These changes are not considered as pathologic, but they effect the functional capacity of elder people in a negative manner. Ageing causes anatomic and physiologic changes in the ocular tissue. Ageing may lead to involutional ptosis, entropion and ectropion in the eyelids. Conjunctiva loses its transparency, its epithelium thickens, and substantia propria becomes thinner and less elastic. Cornea becomes flatter, thinner and less transparent with ageing. The number of endothelial cells in the cornea decrease and polymegethism arid pleomorphism in these cells increase significantly. Weight and thickness of the lens increase by ageing, with a resulting loss of accommodation. Cataract incidence also increases significantly with advancing age, reaching to a value of 70% above age 75. Pseudoexfoliation may develop in the lens capsule. In the cases with pseudoexfoliation, weakening of zonular fibers, spontaneous lens luxation, and phakodonesis might be observed. Reflex lacrimal secretion and drainage decrease significantly by ageing. Macular degeneration is one of the most important causes of blindness in the elder population. Loss of vision is more frequent in the exudative, rather than the nonexudative type. Retinal venous occlusion is commonly seen in the elder people and it develops especially in the presence of predisposing factors. The number of axons in the optic nerve decreases, and the optic cup widens with advancing age. Keywords : Entropion, Ectropion, Cataract, Age-related macular degeneration, and Central retinal vein occlusion