Morphologic changes of the fovea and visual acuity associated with retinal detachment secondary to circumscribed choroidal hemangioma

Purpose: To clarify and review the early and late morphologic changes of the macula associating with visual loss in patients with subfoveal fluid secondary to extrafoveal circumscribed choroidal hemangiomas.

Methods: Previously six non-treated eyes of six patients with subfoveal retinal detachment secondary to extrafoveal circumscribed choroidal hemangioma were included. Visual acuity (VA), duration of visual symptoms, color fundus photography, optical coherence tomography (OCT), fundus autofluorescence, and fluorescein angiography (FA) were evaluated.

Results: The mean patient age was 58 years (range, 25-78). The VA and duration of symptoms in each patient was 1.2 (3 days), 0.6 (1 week), 0.4 (3 months), 0.5 (6 months), 0.02 (12 months), and 0.01 (8 years), respectively. Three patients with symptoms for less than 3 months did not have retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) alterations, retinal edema, or thinning of the retinal structure in the fovea. A patient with symptoms for 3 months had subfoveal deposits underneath the detached neurosensory retina with foveal hyperautofluorescence. Two patients with symptoms exceeding 12 months had highly affected RPE and cystoid macular degeneration.

Conclusions: The VA was affected in patients with longer visual symptoms, and there are some changes in the retina and RPE in the fovea by FA and OCT. Persistent subretinal fluid secondary to choroidal hemangiomas may result in pathologic changes in the neurosensory retina.