Serous macular detachment in central retinal vein occlusion

PURPOSE: To describe serous macular detachment in patients with central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) by using optical coherence tomography (OCT). METHODS: This study included 22 eyes of 22 consecutive patients with CRVO. The patients underwent complete ophthalmic examination, including corrected visual acuity measurement, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, indirect ophthalmoscopy, color fundus photography, fluorescein angiography, and OCT. RESULTS: Twenty-two patients (22 eyes) with cystoid macular edema associated with CRVO (10 women and 12 men; age range, 48-75 years average, 62.5 years]) made up the study population. Angiographically, all patients had typical cystoid macular edema. At the time of initial examination, no patient was suspected of having a serous macular detachment associated with CRVO. The mean foveal thickness as determined by OCT was 567.4 microm. In all cases, the increased thickness of the retina was related primarily to the hyporeflective intraretinal cavities. A serous macular detachment composed of retinal elevation over a nonreflective cavity with minimal shadowing of the underlying tissues was seen in 18 eyes (81.8%). CONCLUSION: OCT findings in this study showed that serous macular detachment in patients with CRVO occurs more often than previously thought. Our data also showed that noncontact fundus ophthalmoscopy and fluorescein angiography were not sufficient to diagnose serous macular detachment in CRVO.