This Week’s Case Study
- Most red eyes are easy to diagnose and manage and many are self limiting even without therapeutic intervention
- Such a “simple red” eye in patient with normal vision and no discomfort or pain is rarely serious
- However, are those dilated vessels causing the red eye “Sentinel” vessels indicating that we should be “on guard” or to “lookout” for an underlying, more serious problem?
- This case reveals an underlying solid mass localized to the ciliary body and more anterior choroid as the culprit responsible for the red eye.
- Mass lesions of the ciliary body are nearly always invisible to slit lamp and ophthalmic examination but easily revealed with ultrasound biomicroscopy – UBM
- UBM, as well as ultra-widefield (UWF) imaging, were invaluable in this case in detecting the mass, a malignant melanoma
- Early detection of this potentially deadly tumor results in early treatment and documented regression with both UBM and UWF images.