For the first time this report describes the histopathological findings 2 months after retinal-tack implantation in a human eye. A stainless-steel tack was implanted to seal a small retinal tear during vitrectomy because of severe proliferative diabetic retinopathy in a 38-year-old man. By gross examination the enucleated eye showed a total retinal detachment except at the site where the tack had been implanted. Histologically a fibrovascular tissue proliferation arising from the choroid had grown into the adjacent retina at the tack site. No inflammatory reaction, pigment epithelium proliferation or glial-cell proliferation attributable to the tack were observed.

The authors report on a baby born on August 25, 1984 with a birthweight of 1100 g. Her parents used drugs intravenously and her mother had anti-HTLV III antibody. In the clinical course an immune deficiency syndrome with pathologic reduction of T4:T8 (T-helper: T-suppressor cells) was apparent. The child had no anti-HTLV III antibody, but exposition, typical clinical course and immunological data led to the diagnosis Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). In the 9th month bilateral progressive retinitis developed; it was thought to have been induced by cytomegalovirus. Complement-fixation antibody titer for cytomegalovirus was negative, but the virus was found in the urine. In the 12th month the baby died of cardiac arrhythmia caused by cytomegalic myocarditis. Macroscopic and light-microscopic illustrations of the inflammatory changes in both eyes are presented; in the retina there were large multinucleated cells which were visible macroscopically.

Unilateral exophthalmos was caused by a cholesterol granuloma in a 42-year-old patient. The clinical picture, roentgenographic and NMR tomographic changes, surgical therapy and histopathological results are described and discussed with regard to the etiology and differential diagnosis of this disease.

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This report describes the clinico-histopathologic correlation of three eyes (of three patients aged 80, 82 and 86 years) with massive subretinal hemorrhage. Two blind eyes were enucleated because of a painful therapy-resistant angle-closure glaucoma, one eye was suspected to have a melanoma of the choroid. Bleeding was predisposed by anticoagulant therapy for systemic problems in one patient and by thrombocytopenia in another patient. Histopathologically a disciform macular degeneration was found in all three eyes as the suspected source of bleeding. The differentiation of subretinal bleeding is from malignant melanoma of the choroid which is made possible by ultrasonic examination of the eye.