Extravasation of blood into the areas around the vitreous humour of the eye

Aetiology

• Diabetic retinopathy
  • Abnormal blood vessels that are fragile and bleed easily
  • Over half of all cases relate to diabetic retinopathy.
  • Signs of diabetic retinopathy – microaneurysms (dots),haemorrhages (flame- shaped), exudates (yellow), engorged tortuous veins, large blot haemorrhages, evidence of new blood vessels in proliferative disease
• Occular trauma - Most common cause in children and young adults - Vascular damage
• Posterior viterous detachment - Associated with a retinal tear in 70-95% of cases
• Other causes (less then 10%):
  • Retinal macroaneurysm rupture (ass. with systemic HTN and atherosclerosis)
  • Sickle cell retinopathy
  • SAH
  • Neovascular age related macular degenaration
  • Occular tumour

Risk factors:

• Neovacularisation (e.g. diabetes)
• Trauma
• Occular surgery
• Sickle cell disease

PC

*presence of risk factors

Presentation is usually with sudden, painless visual loss or haze. Patients may also describe:

• Floaters
• A red tint to their vision
• Sx may. be worse in morning if blood settles on macula during sleep

On examination: