Cataract in gyrate atrophy: clinical and morphologic studies.

The clinical appearance of the cataract in nine phakic patients with gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina is described. The gross and microscopic examination of three cataractous lenses removed from patients 31 years to 47 years of age is reported. Clinically, the lens opacities appeared primarily along the confluence of the sutures posteriorly, interfering with vision because of their location in the visual axis. Histologically the region of the posterior sutures was filled with liquified and degenerated lens material typical of senile cataractous changes. By the second decade, cataract is a uniform finding in patients with gyrate atrophy and appears to be unique as compared with cataracts associated with other forms of retinal degeneration.