DETACHMENT OF THE CHOROID AFTER CATARACT EXTRACTION

Abstract

Detachment of the choroid commonly follows cataract extraction, but it is apparently infrequently recognized and is rarely mentioned in the literature. Detachment is believed to occur almost invariably at the time of operation, but it may occur or recur during convalescence or, in rare instances, even later. INCIDENCE H. Knapp,¹ in 1868, was the first to report detachment of the choroid after cataract extraction; the clinical diagnosis was sarcoma, but microscopic examination of the enucleated eye revealed only an elevated choroid under which there was an accumulation of serous fluid. During the next thirty-two years only ten additional cases² were recorded, but in 1900 Fuchs³ published an account of six cases, all of which were seen within a period of seven months; he gave the incidence as 4.7 per cent of all extractions and expressed the belief that the complication was not rare but was simply overlooked.