Visual symptoms associated with choroidal neovascularization. Photopsias and the Charles Bonnet syndrome
G. C. Brown and R. P. Murphy
Retina Vascular Unit, Wills Eye Hospital, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pa.
One hundred consecutive patients with macular choroidal neovascularization
were studied in a cross-sectional fashion. Evidence of bilateral choroidal
neovascularization was present in 31 patients. Among the 100 subjects, 59%
related a history of seeing flickering or flashing lights (photopsias) in
the affected eye or eyes. The colors varied, but in 59% of instances the
lights were white. Twelve subjects experienced formed hallucinations
(Charles Bonnet syndrome); in nine (75%) of these patients, the sequelae of
choroidal neovascularization were bilateral. Symptoms that are commonly
attributed to vitreoretinal tractional phenomena as well as neurologic
and/or psychiatric disease are also frequently encountered in patients with
macular degeneration associated with choroidal neovascularization.
