Iris Defects

The iris is the colored part of the eye. In addition to giving people character to their eyes that they love to discuss (e.g. “brilliant blue eyes”), the iris controls light entry into the eye. Regulation of how much light reaches the light-sensing cells in the retina is important, so people who have damage to the iris often have issues.

In the October 2022 edition of the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery, there is an article by Kryshtalskyj and colleagues about the development of a questionnaire to help measure the symptoms and “appearance-based quality-of-life” of iris defects. They call the survey the Iris Glare, Appearance, and Photophobia questionnaire, or the “Iris GAP.” They conclude that the Iris GAP can be used in patients with iris defects to evaluate symptoms and patient’s perception of their eye appearance.