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Case Reports
. 2021 Mar 30;5(5):420-424.
doi: 10.1177/2474126421998606. eCollection 2021 Sep-Oct.

Vitrectomy for Symptomatic Asteroid Hyalosis

Elizabeth Marlow  1 , Tarek Hassan  1   2 , Lisa Faia  1   2 , Kimberly Drenser  1   2 , Bruce Garretson  1   2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Vitrectomy for Symptomatic Asteroid Hyalosis

Elizabeth Marlow et al. J Vitreoretin Dis. .

Abstract

Purpose: Acute vision loss may accompany complete or partial posterior vitreous separation in asteroid hyalosis (AH), and pars plana vitrectomy may resolve these symptoms.

Methods: Six individuals with AH and acute vision loss associated with diagnosed posterior vitreous separation were treated with pars plana vitrectomy, and visual acuity (VA) recovery was monitored for 3 months.

Results: The study patients' preoperative VA ranged from 20/25 to 20/2500 (mean, 20/150; logMAR, 0.88). The average decrease in VA with anterior progression of the hyaloid was logMAR 0.70. Following surgical clearance of the asteroid bodies, VA returned to baseline within 1 month following vitrectomy in 2 eyes, and within 3 months in all eyes. Final VA was 20/20 to 20/200 (mean, 20/35; logMAR, 0.24).

Conclusions: Patients with AH may present with acute onset of severe vision loss in association with posterior vitreous separation. Vitrectomy may be curative and restore vision.

Keywords: asteroid hyalosis; pars plana vitrectomy; posterior vitreous detachment.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Preoperative and postoperative optical coherence tomography (OCT) of 3 patients with acute visual acuity decrease coincident with asteroid hyalosis and vitreoretinal separation. (A) A 71-year-old man had a posterior vitreous detachment that was confirmed on preoperative OCT. (C) Vitreoschisis in a 74-year-old woman with focal peripapillary attachment. (E) Vitreoschisis in an 81-year-old woman with underlying age-related macular degeneration. (B, D, and F) OCT following pars plana vitrectomy for these patients, respectively, confirming complete removal of the posterior hyaloid. VA indicates visual acuity.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Intraoperative photographs of pars plana vitrectomy from the patient with the optical coherence tomography shown in Figure 1, A and B. The images highlight (A and B) dense asteroid bodies in the anterior vitreous and (C) the presence of a posterior vitreous detachment confirmed intraoperatively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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