Background: Photodynamic therapy has recently advanced to a first line treatment of symptomatic circumscribed choroidal hemangiomas.
History and signs: A sixty-year-old male patient was referred with progressive visual loss in his left eye. Visual acuity measured 20/80 and fundus examination revealed a prominent red subretinal lesion superior to the fovea with adjacent pigment epithelial irregularities. Thickening of the central retina was seen on OCT imaging. Sonography revealed a dome-shaped lesion with a maximal thickness of 3.3 mm and high internal reflectivity. Combined fundus indocyanine green and fluorescein angiography showed early filling of large vessels within the tumor.
Therapy and outcome: The hemangioma was treated with verteporphin photodynamic therapy. Two days after treatment, with vision unchanged, fundus examination revealed blackening of the tumor. Two months later vision increased to 20/40 and the tumor area was atrophic and bright red with a slight hyperpigmented rim. Angiography revealed the disappearance of tumor vessels and choroidal hypoperfusion in the area of treatment.
Conclusions: Choroidal hemangiomas may darken initially after photodynamic therapy. This is most probably caused by large coaguli within the voluminous lacuna-like blood-filled vessel system of the hemangioma that are induced by photothrombosis.