Cilioretinal arteries and retinal arterial occlusion
G. C. Brown and J. A. Shields
A series of 187 cases of retinal artery occlusion was reviewed. 107 of
which were central retinal artery occlusions (CRAO). Of the 107 cases, 28
(26%) showed some degree of macular sparing owing to a patent
cilioretinalartery. The patients with cilioretinal sparing regained
variable degrees of visual acuity, depending on the amount of the
pipillomacular bundle supplied by the patent vessel. The patients with CRAO
without cilioretinal sparing rarely regained any useful vision. To our
knowledge, this is the first large series documenting the degree of visual
return in such cases. From this data, guidelines for counseling patients
with CRAO with cilioretinal sparing are presented.
