CORALLIFORM CATARACT AND A NEW FORM OF CONGENITAL CATARACT WITH CRYSTALS IN THE LENS

Abstract

The name coralliform cataract was first applied by Gunn¹to a particular type of congenital cataract in which many layers of the lens in the axial area are affected by peculiar branching opacities. Related forms of opacity which have this peculiarity of distribution have been called floriform, arborescent and fusiform cataract, while the form described by Vogt²as spear cataract also belongs in this group. In the latter's cases the opacities were composed of shiny crystals arranged about denser central rods to form a series of spear-shaped figures joined together at irregular angles more or less near the sagittal axis of the lens. The opacities gave the impression of a number of spiny insects or caterpillars in the axial area. A mother, a son, a maternal aunt and two cousins were affected. In 1924 one of us³reported a case resembling that of Vogt in which