Patient Stories

Over the years our doctor and the technology we use have helped to diagnose and treat many eye diseases.  Here are a few of our patients stories.

Superior Retinal Detachment found with our DGH B-Scan

​A 39 yo/w/m who has been a patient of our practice since 1994, called the office with symptoms of an acute onset of floaters.  This was followed by an episode of sneezing for nearly 30mins.  This patient's health was otherwise unremarkalbe.  He was told to present to the office a.s.a.p. to rule out a detached retina.  After checking his visual acuities and instilling dilating drops into his eyes a B-Scan Ultasound was performed.  Dr. Cavallo noticed this patient had a sight threatening retinal detachment.  While the patient continued to rest in the chair Dr. Cavallo e-mailed the scan to a Retinal surgeon at Morristown hospital and arranged for the patient to undergo surgery when he left the office.  Within 90 mins. of leaving our clinic the patient underwent surgery and was released from the hospital roughtly 12 hours later. This patient is doing very now.

This high level of care which led to a good prognosis was afforded due to the expertise of Dr. Cavallo and our ability to offer advanced diagnostic equipment.

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Anterior Segment Photo of Herpes Simplex

​This is a case of a 19 yo/b/m who had ocular rednes, pain and light sensitivity along with decreased vision through the same eye for a period of 3 months.  He was seen by a group of opthalmologists and was placed "soley on topical steriods."  This patient's symptoms worsened and he was now in front of Dr. Cavallo for another opinion.  After careful examination, it was discovered that this patient had Herpes Simplex Keratitis.

HSV is a common virus.  It is estimated that nearly 95% of the population has Herpes Simplex by the age of 65.  Herpes can affect any part of the body.  In this case, it affected this patient's eye.

This patient was immediately placed on oral Valtrex along with a "soft" topical steroid.  He is doing much better.  Because he was mistakenly placed soley on a topical steroid by the group of ophthalmologists that he had previously seen, his cornea is now scarred and he needs a corneal transplant to regain 20/20 vision.

HSV keratitis can be a sight threatening disease and prompt referral and treament is needed

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     Retinal Photo of Coat's Disease

This is a case of a 6 yo/w/m.  His mother and father have been coming to Dr. Cavallo since 1994.  It was in 2007 that Mrs. "x", mother of the 6 yo subject, called and asked if it were necessary to take her 6yo boy for a routine eyee exam despite the fact that the young man had no complaints or symptoms.

Dr. Cavallo told the mother that he feels all children should begin regular visits to the eye doctor starting at the age of 5 or earlier should symptoms be noted or referral from the pediatrcian be made.

Upon examination, it was immediately noted that the subject's right eye had severely decreased vision. All other external exam was noted to be unremarkable.  Dr. Cavallo then instilled drops to dilate the boy.  It was immediately noted upon the retinal exam that the boy had a "tumor."  Dr. Cavallo referred the patient out to a pediatric ophthalmic oncologist at Columbia in NYC, were is was determined that the patient had Coat's disease.  The initial concern was Retinoblastoma.  Retinoblastoma is an ocular cancer that is more common in children than adults.  The prognosis for such a disease is guarded.  Fortunately, the diagnosis was "Coat's" disease which is a vascular tumor that has a predilection for affecting boys more than girls.  This is generally a self limiting disease and surgical intervention is only necessary when progression is continual.  The patient's visual acuity in that eye is 20/200 which is considered "legal blindnees."  The good news is that his fellow eye is 20/20 and the prognosis is not life threatening.

The take home is have regularly scheduled exams with a qualified eye care professional.

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