Calcific phacolysis.
METHODS
The authors report the clinical and ocular histopathologic findings in three patients with longstanding unilateral post-traumatic blindness. After one or more decades, acute pain associated with conjunctival hyperemia and apparent keratoprecipitates or a hypopyon developed in the affected eye of each individual. Phacoanaphylaxis was diagnosed preoperatively in two patients.


RESULTS
Calcified granular lens fragments were dispersed throughout all three eyes. The anterior chamber in all patients contained extracellular calcified lens particles, but only one eye contained conspicuous macrophages. Two eyes showed elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), and in one patient calcified particles extended into a glaucomatous optic nerve head.


CONCLUSIONS
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report describing a rare condition involving the intraocular dispersal of calcified lens particles after disruption of the lens capsule. The authors have designated this entity as calcific phacolysis.
Scroggs
M W
MW
Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710.
Proia
A D
AD
Charles
N C
NC
Helms
H A
HA
Klintworth
G K
GK
D001766:Blindness / Q000473:pathology; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000473:pathology*; D005129:Eye Foreign Bodies / Q000473:pathology; D015807:Eye Injuries, Penetrating / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007429:Intraocular Pressure; D007903:Lens Capsule, Crystalline / Q000473:pathology; D007905:Lens Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged