Traumatic corneal endothelial rings

Abstract

Non-perforating injuries to the eyes of 4 patients resulted in ring-shaped opacities of the corneal endothelium which disappeared spontaneously after a few days and did not lead to a permanent reduction in visual acuity.

As the result of explosions multiple small powder particles penetrated the corneal epithelium of the patients. After a few hours ring-shaped opacities of the corneal endothelium appeared under some of these foreign bodies, which first increased in intensity and then gradually disappeared within a few days. The diameter of these rings was between 0.5 and 1.1 mm. The corneal stroma remained clear all the time. In one patient who had worn a hard contact lens too long and had slept with it, a disc-shaped area of stromal oedema with folds in Descemet's membrane developed, with a ring-shaped opacity of the endothelium with a diameter of about 2 mm. The stromal oedema was clearly visible for 3 days, after which it disappeared without trace within a few days.

This paper describes and illustrates the endothelial rings.