Purpose: To report the clinicopathologic features in the eye of a patient who sustained a traumatic chorioretinal rupture from a gunshot wound to the orbit, chorioretinitis sclopetaria, with clinical follow up of more than 20 years.
Methods: The patient was studied ophthalmoscopically and by fluorescein angiography after the trauma and was seen intermittently thereafter. The eyes were obtained postmortem; sections of the central portion of the right eye, including the macula and optic nerve head, and the inferior cap were examined by light microscopy.
Results: Histopathologic study of the right eye showed partial loss of the nerve fiber and ganglion cell layers in the macular area, temporal peripapillary and macular loss of the photoreceptors with hypertrophy and hyperplasia of the retinal pigment epithelium, an epiretinal membrane, and three defects in Bruch's membrane. Inferiorly, there was a 5-mm defect in choroid, Bruch's membrane, and retina. These structures were replaced by a loose and dense fibrous connective tissue. The sclera and a long posterior ciliary nerve remained intact. A thin fibrovascular tissue from the choroid extended into the subretinal space where it was covered by retinal pigment epithelium and thickened basement membrane in the posterior aspect of the inferior lesion. Marked hemiatrophy of the optic nerve was present.
Conclusions: The clinicopathologic features of chorioretinitis sclopetaria include direct traumatic chorioretinal rupture followed by marked fibrovascular proliferation with variable replacement of choroid and retina with no retinal detachment. Posteriorly, indirect macular choroidal ruptures with hyperplasia and migration of the retinal pigment epithelium into the retina and choroid, epiretinal membrane formation, loss of photoreceptors, and marked hemiatrophy of the optic nerve were present.