Spontaneous Expulsive Choroidal Hemorrhage

Abstract

SPONTANEOUS expulsive choroidal hemorrhage is an uncommon and bizarre ocular disaster. It occurs almost exclusively in eyes of elderly individuals with arteriosclerosis. Frequently, a history of chronic glaucoma is found. Because of the rarity of this condition, its pathogenesis has never been explained adequately. We were able to find reports of 15 cases in the world literature. The first documented report was by Grafenberg in 1907. 1 Manschot 2 has described a case examined histopathologically. Similarly, Pietruschka and Schill 3 give histopathological descriptions in two of their five cases listed in the recent German literature. The present article concerns an additional two cases examined microscopically. In these cases the expulsive hemorrhage occurred secondary to explosive decompression due to corneal perforation in an arteriosclerotic eye rather than as a primary event which is followed by a secondary corneal rupture due to the increased pressure within the eye as proposed by previous