Subretinal hemorrhages with or without choroidal neovascularization in the maculas of patients with pathologic myopia

Abstract

We examined 20 patients (24 eyes) who had refractive errors of — 8 diopters or more and subretinal hemorrhages at the initial visit. They were divided into two groups according to fluorescein angiographic findings: 15 eyes without choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and 9 eyes with CNV. Subretinal hemorrhage without CNV was frequent in patients aged 20–39 years (mean, 36.8 years). CNV was common in patients aged 60–79 years (mean, 61.0 years). No relationship was noted between refractive error and type of hemorrhage. In the eyes without CNV, the subretinal hemorrhages disappeared spontaneously after a few months. The visual acuity of these patients was variable at the initial visit (range, 0.01-0.8), and was unchanged or improved during the follow-up period. In the eyes with CNV, the visual acuity was less than 0.1 at the initial visit and was unchanged or worse during the follow-up period.