This eye is suffering from hurricane keratopathy, also known as whorl or vortex kerataopathy. This is when deposits (verticillata) form on the cornea, typically in patients taking oral amiodarone or other medications.

The lines are microscopic, and are usually seen as an incidental findings when at the ophthalmologists office. Very rarely, they can have visual symptoms. As you can see here, the image is highly magnified. To put this in perspective, and to better appreciate how these verticillata, you may want to watch our hurricane keratopathy video from which this image was taken.

Here you can see a close-up view of a cornea in a patient on amiodarone. Those subtle lines running horizontally are verticillata deposits that can form on the superficial layers of the cornea. This is sometimes called whorl or hurricane keratopathy, and is generally a benign finding only seen under the microscope, with no visual deficits.

This is a pretty magnified view, so if you want to get a better feel for how this looks, you might want to watch our amiodarone whorl keratopathy video from which this snapshot was captured.

This photograph shows corneal verticillata, found on routine eye exam in a woman on amiodarone. These deposits occur in the superficial cornea and are rarely visually significant. Many other drugs are known to cause this, though amiodarone is the most common. These corneal findings are also seen with fabry’s disease.

Other synonyms for this include whorl keratopathy, vortex keratopathy, and hurricane keratopathy. To get a better idea what these whorls look like, you might want to watch the verticillata keratopathy video from which this snapshot was captured.

This photograph shows an eye that has suffered a retinal detachment treated with silicone oil. The oil is placed in the back of the eye, but has expanded into the front anterior chamber. You can see it as a clear round bubble in the eye. It looks like a contact lens, but is actually a clear bubble of fluid sitting in the eye.

This image may be hard to interpret, so you may want to watch our silicone video (from which this snapshot was taken) to get a better idea how this looks.

This eye looks normal at first, but if you look closely you can see a large bubble of silicone oil in the anterior chamber. This silicone was placed into the back of the eye to repair a retinal detachment. Unfortunately, some of the oil has percolated forward into the front of the eye.

This places the ophthalmologist in a difficult position: you’d like to take the oil out as it can decompensate the endothelium and cause cornea problems. However, removal of silicone may also lead to a re-detachment of the retina. Some might try removing the oil from the front part of the eye only with paracentesis, however, some retinal surgeons I’ve spoken to say that this is only a temporary fix as the oil continues to burp back into the AC.

To get a better stereoscopic view of this eye, watch our silicone oil video from which this photograph was taken.

This photograph shows an eye with pseudoexfoliation of the lens. The white material on the surface of the cataractous lens rubs on the back surface of the iris, releasing pigment in the eye that clogs the trabecular drain. This can create a PXE glaucoma from insufficient aqueous outflow.

Pseudoexfoliation is also an important finding to note prior to considering cataract surgery. The basement membrane also forms on the lens zonules, making them prone to breaking during surgery … leading to vitreous loss, zonular dehiscense, and even late lens dislocation.

To get a better idea how this eye looks under the microscope, you might want to watch our pseudoexfoliation glaucoma video from which this photo was taken.

This microscope photograph shows an eye with pseudoexfoliation syndrome. You can see the white, basement-membrane material sitting on the surface of the lens. This debris rubs on the overlying iris and can cause glaucoma from trabecular meshwork clogging. Also, this findings indicates a higher risk for zonular dehiscence during cataract surgery.

This photograph is a fantastic one, but you might also want to see our pseudoexfoliation video of the same eye to truly appreciate how this finding looks under the microscope.

This photograph shows the view your ophthalmologist has during a laser iridomy. A LPI (laser peripheral iridotomy) is a procedure where a laser is used to blast a hole through the iris. This hole allows the fluid in the eye to drain properly and can be of great help in cases of acute glaucoma, and to keep those prone to acute glaucoma from developing it.

This picture may be hard to understand out of context … basically, a lens is being held up to the eye in order to view the iris (colored part of the eye) in high magnification. The laser hole is very small, and typically is performed in the top part of the eye (under the eyelid) so that it can’t be seen. Even then, the resulting hole is so small that it’s almost impossible to see without a microscope. To get a better idea how this procedure is done, watch our laser iridotomy video from which this snapshot was captured.

This photograph was taken during a laser iridotomy. This is when you create a hole in the iris to equalize the pressure between the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye. This procedure is typically performed on patients with acute angle-closure glaucoma or those at risk for angle closure.

This photograph, taken from our laser iridotomy video, shows a yag laser being used to blast through the iris. The dark “hole” is the hole created with the laser, and there is a plume of iris pigment debris coming out from it (this really makes more sense in the iridotomy movie). You can see a small illuminated spot at the edge of the hole … this is the guiding laser beam spot used for focusing and targeting.

This picture shows a cluster of Elschnig pearls that have formed on the back surface of a cataract implant. These occur because of lens epithelial cells that are left behind after cataract extraction, that migrate along the cortex face. They rarely cause any visual problems and almost only can be seen under the microscope.

Watch our elschnig pearl video to get a better idea what these clusters look like.