Optociliary veins.

Abstract

Optociliary veins occur in three clinical settings: in chronic central retinal vein obstruction, with retro-orbital tumors, and as congenital anomalies. In the last setting, associated anomalies of the disc and retinal vessels may be present, which makes differentiation from the first two difficult. Fluorescein angiography may be of value in making this differentiation for, in some if not all congenital OC veins, the direction of flow is from the choroid into the central retinal vein. Two cases are presented in which a congenital optociliary vein was present in association with a fundus picture mimicking a central retinal vein obstruction or papilledema. In both cases, fluorescein angiography demonstrated that the vessel was a congenital anomaly, draining from the choroid into the retina.