Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about retinitis pigmentosa. And you can follow along with written notes on this topic

at zero tofinals.com slash retinitis pigmentosa or in the ophthalmology section of the zero to finals medicine book.

So let's get straight into it.

Retinitis pigmentosa is a congenital inherited condition where there is degeneration in the rods and cones in the retina in the back of the eye.

There are many different genetic causes of retinitis pigmentosa.

Some causes involve isolated retinitis pigmentosa, whereas others result in systemic diseases which

are associated with the condition. And they vary in the age at which they present and also the

prognosis and severity of the retinitis pigmentosa.

In most genetic causes the rods degenerate more than the cones and this leads to night blindness.

So difficulty seeing in poor lighting conditions. There's a decrease in both the central and the peripheral vision.

So how does it present? Well, the presentation can vary depending on the underlying cause.

Family history is very important and in most causes the symptoms start in childhood.

And it starts with night blindness, which is often the first symptom. So as the light gets more dim, it becomes more difficult for the patient to see.

And this is because of degeneration in the rods, more than the cones.

Also, the peripheral vision is lost before the central vision.

Let's talk about the phandoscopy findings.

Phandoscopy will show pigmentation, and this is described as a bone spickle pigmentation.

And Spickle refers to sharp pointed objects.

Bone Spickle is used to refer to the similarity between the pigmentation in the back of the eye on

phandoscopy and the networking appearance of the bone matrix when you cut through a bone

and you look at the matrix inside of the bone. The pigmentation is most concentrated around the

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