Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M J Greenwald.
This article considers the development of vision in normal children, emphasizing new evaluative techniques that may eventually play an important role in clinical practice, and follows with a discussion of abnormal development, where recent discoveries in the laboratory and in clinical observation have already led to significant advances in the treatment of children with ophthalmologic problems.
Metastatic bacterial endophthalmitis remains a challenge to the clinician despite the success of antibiotics in reducing its frequency and severity. Controversy currently surrounds the management of this condition because of uncertainty about the value of and indications for vitreous surgery. We review 72 cases of metastatic endophthalmitis from the past decade, including five not previously published. The spectrum of causative bacteria changed significantly during this period, with displacement of meningococcus by Bacillus cereus as the most frequently reported agent and an increasing incidence of infection by organisms of low pathogenicity in immunologically compromised hosts. We propose a new classification scheme for metastatic endophthalmitis based on the location (anterior or posterior segment) and extent (focal or diffuse) of the primary intraocular infection. Focal and anterior cases appear to have a good prognosis, while posterior diffuse disease nearly always leads to blindness. Our analysis of outcomes suggests that systemic antibiotics are more valuable in metastatic than in postoperative or traumatic endophthalmitis and that intraocular antibiotic injection and vitrectomy make only a limited contribution to successful treatment in metastatic infection. We recommend a clinical approach to metastatic endophthalmitis that minimizes exposure of patients to the risks of invasive procedures.
We detected mild afferent pupillary defects with the "swinging flashlight" test in 4 out of 45 amblyopic patients. Our study was designed to minimize the effect of observer bias and to control for the difficulty of testing the pupils in young children. We found afferent defects in both strabismic and anisometropic amblyopes. There was no apparent relationship between pupillary response and visual acuity: afferent defects were noted in association with better than 20/100 vision in three cases but were absent in a majority of patients with profound visual loss. Vision was improved by occlusion therapy in two amblyopes with pupillary abnormalities. We regard the occurrence of afferent pupillary defects as evidence for a physiological disturbance at the retinal level in at least some cases of amblyopia. Our findings suggest that the extent of retinal involvement in amblyopic eyes is independent of reduction in acuity, to which primary cortical abnormalities may contribute as well.
Several months after a fall down a flight of stairs, a one-year-old girl developed downward displacement and pulsation of the left eye. Vision and ocular motility were not impaired and the child remained neurologically normal. Computed tomography with metrizamide cisternography demonstrated herniation of brain tissue through a traumatic defect in the roof of the orbit. The orbital rim and other craniofacial bones were intact. Repair of the growing fracture found at operation restored normal appearance without disturbing function. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of encephalocele associated with an isolated fracture of the orbital roof due to blunt head trauma.
Two patients with primary teratomas of the orbit and a third patient with a teratoma invading the orbit from the maxillary sinus are presented. The clinical presentation of each patient was spectacular. In the primary teratomas, the globe was displaced out of the orbit by the attached tumor, causing extreme proptosis. Computed tomography was virtually diagnostic, showing a variegated orbital mass with solid and cystic components. Histologic examination showed multiple tissues derived from two or three germinal layers. The surgical removal of the tumors and reasons for the poor visual outcome are discussed. The appearance of teratomas in the orbit and other cephalic structures appears to arise from the survival and proliferation of germ cells deposited there during embryogenesis.
We measured the horizontal extent of the binocular peripheral field of vision in ten adult esotropes using Goldmann perimetry before and after strabismus surgery. In every case there was expansion of the field by an amount approximately commensurate with the change in angle of strabismic deviation. This occurred regardless of the presence of amblyopia or recovery of binocular fusion. Subjective improvement in peripheral vision was appreciated by a number of patients. Visual field expansion should be recognized as a significant indication for correction of esotropia.
A young child was examined for unilateral hyphema of 1 month duration with a questionable history of blunt trauma. Ultrasonography was negative for tumefaction. Two months later the media cleared, revealing a diffusely abnormal retina. Computed tomography demonstrated a diffusely thickened posterior pole containing calcium. Histopathology of the enucleated globe was consistent with a diffuse infiltrating retinoblastoma. This is the first report of computed tomographic findings in diffuse infiltrating retinoblastoma.
A male infant with Klinefelter karyotype (47, XXY) manifested both the typical dermatologic findings of the X-linked dominant disorder incontinentia pigmenti (Bloch-Sulzberger syndrome) and ocular findings including retinal pigmentary changes, peripheral retinal avascularity, and preretinal fibrovascular proliferation. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of incontinentia pigmenti with this specific abnormal genotype manifesting ocular findings.