This healthy 12YO girl was found to have this asymptomatic retinal finding in her left eye during a routine examination. The right eye was completely normal.
Color imaging shows a torpedo-shaped area of depigmentation just inferotemporal to the left fovea. OCT scanning through this lesion shows an area of hyporeflectivity between the ellipsoid zone and RPE.
Learning Points:
Torpedo maculopathy was originally described by Gass as a solitary hypopigmented nevus of the RPE (Arch Ophthalmology 1992;110:1358-1359). These benign, unilateral lesions are teardrop-shaped and almost always located in the horizontal meridian of the temporal macula.
Our case is a bit atypical in that OCT scanning classically shows attenuation of both the RPE and outer retinal layers. Vision is almost always normal. There is a small risk of macular neovascularization.
