Asteroid hyalosis: clinical review of 58 cases

• Main Authors: José Nuno Vargas Galveia, Ana Sofia Marques Travassos, Dídia Maria Mateus Barreiros Proença, António Casanova Tavares Travassos, Rui Daniel Mateus Barreiros Proença
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Oftalmologia 2013-10-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira de Oftalmologia
• Subjects: Corpo vítreo; Oftalmopatias; Vitrectomia
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-72802013000500006&lng=en&tlng=en

OBJECTIVE: Understand the behavior, functional repercussion and relationship with epidemiological factors of asteroid hyalosis (AH) and retrospective observational case series. METHODS: Fifty-eight patients diagnosed with AH (24 women and 34 men) were studied. All patients were submitted to a thorough ophthalmological examination. RESULTS: We observed a statistical association between the presence of AH and male sex (p=0,042). An increase in prevalence of this pathology was observed with increasing age. We determined an odds ration of 5,24 of a patient over 50 years old having AH, when compared to patients bellow this threshold. Eighty-six percent of patients had unilateral vitreous deposits. We measured a lower IOP in the affected eye, with the difference being in average 2,68 ± 1,45 mmHg (p=0,037). We observed no statistical association between AH and age related macular degeneration, diabetes or glaucoma. Five eyes were submitted to facoemulsification combined with pars plana vitrectomy with an average gain of 7 lines (Snellen) in visual acuity (p=0,03). CONCLUSION: In our sample a clear association between AH, ageing and male sex was observed. The majority of patients had unilateral vitreous deposits. Vitrectomy in association with facoemulsification is a safe and effective intervention in this group of patients.