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ARTICLES
Year : 1985  |  Volume : 33  |  Issue : 3  |  Page : 175-176

Optic pit and central serous detachment


Gandhi Eye Hospital, Aligarh, India

Correspondence Address:
Vijay Pahwa
Gandhi Eye Hospital Aligarh
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


PMID: 3841864

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How to cite this article:
Pahwa V. Optic pit and central serous detachment. Indian J Ophthalmol 1985;33:175-6

How to cite this URL:
Pahwa V. Optic pit and central serous detachment. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 1985 [cited 2024 Mar 29];33:175-6. Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?1985/33/3/175/30815

This condition is not uncommon and was first reported by Wiethe[1]. It is usually uni­lateral although both eyes may be involved. The pit is usually single, close to the margin of the disc or more rarely situated near its centre. It never extends beyond the margin of the disc, although it may deform the papil­la into oval shape. It is usually situated in the lower temporal quadrant of the disc, rarely on the nasal side and still more rarely in the upper quadrant.

Optic pit is considered as a minimal colo­boma of the disc, usually in a typical posi­tion. There is herniation of the neural ectoderm associated with coloboma elsewhere indicating active proliferation of the retina tissues, in this case into the disc.

Patients with this disorder are usually seen between the ages of 20 and 40. The serous retinal separation is usually confines to posterior pole and extends in an oval or tear drop configuration from the margins of the optic pit. If the serous detachment is long standing, there frequently are mottled specks of hyper and hypopigmentation in the retinal pigment epithelium, cystoid macular change or a partial to full thickness macular hole.


  Case report Top


A 28 years old male was admitted in the hospital with complaints of diminution of vision in right eye. Anterior segment was normal and fundus examination showed optic pit and serous detachment of macula [Figure - 1]. Visual acuity in right eye was 6/60. Optic pit was situated in the lower temporal qua­drant of disc, the size of the optic pit was about 1/4 the size of the disc and the retinal vessels had normal arrangement.

Flourescein Angiography showed late staining of the optic pit without flow of dye to the area of serous separation [Figure - 2][Figure - 3]. There was atrophic pigment epithelium in the papillo-macular bundle. Photocoagu­lation treatment was not given. There is no other known treatment.


  Discussion Top


The cause of the changes at macula is dis­puted, but they are certainly secondary to the anomaly at the disc. Gass[2] has postulated that fluid may enter the subretinal space from either vitreous or from the spinal suba­rachnoid space. Most authorities subscribe to the latter theory[2]. Similarly Sugar[3] had suggested that it might result from the mecha­nical seepage of the intraocular fluid into the pit and up this bundle of fibres.

Pathological examination of optic pit has been few. It is agreed that the pit is formed by rudimentary retinal tissue with glial ele­ments and remnants of nerve fibres and pig­ment epithlium. In the region of the pit the lamina cribrosa is defective and the entire anomalous arrangement is limited within the dural sheath, the sclera and choroid being normal. The nerve fibres from the retina skirt its margin on their way to the optic nerve.

Clinical symptoms may well be absent so that the anomaly is often discovered acciden­tally. Frequntly however defects are present in the visual field, the most common of which are the enlargement of blind spot and sector defects and particularly partial or complete paracentral or central scotoma.

Some of these serous detachments of the macula spontaneously reattach. Treatment with photoccagulation is of limited or no value(7). Sometimes abnormal vessles deep in the pit cause late staining of the pit and nerve head and occasionally these vessels may actually leak into the subsensory retinal space. Photocoagulation treatment has been used in these cases, but its true value in com­parison to the natural history still require documentation.


  Summary Top


A case report of central serous detach­ment and optic pit is presented.

 
  References Top

1.
Duke-Elder, S., 1964, System of Ophthalmo­logy Vol. III. Part 2.  Back to cited text no. 1
    
2.
Patz. Fine and Orth, 1976, Diseases of Sights and Sounds in Ophthalmology. Vol. 1.  Back to cited text no. 2
    
3.
Sugar, H.S., 1962, Amer. J. Ophthalmo 52 : 307.  Back to cited text no. 3
    


    Figures

  [Figure - 1], [Figure - 2], [Figure - 3]



 

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