Blog

Our patient has age-related macular degeneration with a type 3 macular neovascularization (MNV), also known as retinal angiomatous proliferation (RAP). Her fundus photo reveals inner retinal hemorrhages of her right eye and variable intraretinal fluid on OCT. Our patient showed no obvious exudation clinically, but the small amount of intraretinal fluid on OCT in the… Read More

This 29yo male presented with asymptomatic bilateral optic nerve drusen. Vision was 20/40 OD and 20/30 OS. The drusen hyperautofluoresce, and visual fields show some non-specific depression and defects. Learning Points: Optic disc drusen are small hyaline bodies within the optic nerve that progressively calcify over time. They can be buried or superficial, giving the… Read More

This 18YO patient presented in August 2019 (over 6 months before the COVID epidemic rocked our world) with these unusual idiopathic asymptomatic macular findings. But isn’t it prescient that his macula eerily revealed a strikingly natural rendition of Edvard Munch’s 1893 ‘The Scream of Nature’? If only we could have recognized what his macula was… Read More

This patient presented with 20/200 vision OD with a severely swollen nerve, a secondary central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), and a large patch of nasal macular neuroretinitis. The left eye was normal. Three weeks later, the findings had improved spontaneously and dramatically, and vision was 20/50. Some faint superior and nasal lipid was noted. Bloodwork… Read More

This case is either a combined hamartoma of the retina and RPE or an unusual macular pucker centered over the optic nerve. There is contracted fibrotic tissue overlying the optic nerve We don’t know why a pigmented polyp-like RPE detachment developed, which was not present when we initially saw him about 5 years earlier. Learning… Read More

This 52YO female presented with severe bilateral vision loss (20/400 OD, counting fingers OS) following a several-week gastrointestinal illness with 60-pound weight loss. She has bilateral areas of hemorrhagic retinal vasculitis, with areas of ischemia and leakage seen on fluorescein angiography. OCT shows macular subretinal fluid and a bacillary detachment in the left macula. She… Read More

This patient has morning glory syndrome. The left optic nerve appears to have a large optic disc excavation with radial vessels, central glial tissue, and peripapillary atrophy (PPA) and pigmentation. Visual prognosis is usually poor. Learning Points: The morning glory syndrome is typically unilateral and shares some similarities with optic disc coloboma and juxtapapillary staphyloma…. Read More

This 22YO patient, courtesy of Dr. Brooke Spivey, presented with degenerative retinoschisis with numerous inner-layer holes. One year later, the schisis cavity had enlarged, with a new posterior outer layer hole. There were no visual symptoms. Learning Points: This patient is at a low risk of developing a combined rhegmatogenous schisis detachment due to the… Read More

This healthy 49YO female presented with severe, sudden vision loss in her right eye. There were multiple white macular patches similar to Purtscher’s retinopathy, but without retinal hemorrhages. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) showed multiple mid-retinal hyperreflective paracentral acute macular maculopathy (PAMM) lesions. Since we felt this could represent an incomplete central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO),… Read More

This 24YO male had a history of acute alcohol-related pancreatitis one month earlier and presented with bilateral multifocal areas of superficial peripapillary retinal whitening. OCT scanning showed small hyperreflective areas spanning the inner plexiform, inner nuclear, and outer plexiform layers. Learning Points: Purtscher’s retinopathy was first described by Otmar Purtscher in 1910. Although originally described… Read More