This site is targeted at medical and radiology professionals, contains user contributed content, and material that may be confusing to a lay audience. Use of this site implies acceptance of our Terms of Use.

Anophthalmia

Dr Abhilash Sandhyala and Dr Yuranga Weerakkody et al.

Anophthalmia refers to a complete absence of ocular development. It is often considered to represent the most severe form of microphthalmia.

Pathology

It can occur in 3 different situations

primary anophthalmia : complete absence of eye tissue due to a failure of the part of the brain that forms the eye.
secondary anophthalmia : there is initial eye developent which halts for some reason leaving behind only residual eye tissue or extremely small eyes which can only be seen under close examination.
degenerative anophthalmia : there is initial ocular development but again for some reason starts to degenerate - possibly from lack of blood supply to the eye.

Associations

Recognised associations are many and include

Etymology

It derives from the Greek word : ανόφθαλμος meaning "without eye"

This article is a stub, which means it needs more content. You can contribute to Radiopaedia.org too. Just register and edit... every little bit helps.