PHACOLYTIC GLAUCOMA AND LENS-INDUCED UVEITIS

The pathogenesis of lens-induced uveitis and phacolytic glaucoma is st ill not fully understood. The authors report a case of a 62-year-old w hite female, with bilateral lens dislocation into the vitreous, who pr esented clinical and pathological features of phacolytic glaucoma in t he left eye. The ultrastructural study of aqueous and vitreous aspirat es showed lenticular fragments and macrophages with lipofuscin granule s and phagocytic vacuoles containing lens proteins. Immunocytochemistr y revealed foamy macrophages immunoreactive for CD68 and HLA-DR. One y ear later the right eye disclosed a mild anterior granulomatous uveiti s with corneal mutton-fat keratic precipitates that remained unchanged in the course of sixteen months follow-up without further treatment. These findings corroborate the possibility that, besides their mechani cal and inflammatory roles in the impairment of the outflow system of the (exciting) left eye, phacolytic macrophages might also have been i nvolved in the afferent phase of the mild chronic uveitis df the (fell ow) right eye.