A histopathologic study of retinal arterial aneurysms.

An isolated retinal arterial aneurysm was found postmortem in the eye of a 75-year-old hypertensive woman, and multiple aneurysms were in the enucleated eye of a 68-year-old hypertensive man with neovascular glaucoma. The aneurysmal sites showed thickening of the vessel walls with hyaline, fibrin, and foamy macrophages. Fresh or organized thrombus partially filled the aneurysmal lumina. Trypsin digestion preparations in Case 2 showed a progressive severity of aneurysmal changes from the simplest "cuff" type to the hemorrhagic "b;pwout" aneurysms with a linear split in the vessel wall. Atheroma was present in the larger arterial branches and fat was in most of the aneurysmal walls. These findings suggested that damage to the arterial wall by cholesterol or other emboli, or by occlusive disease, may predispose especially hypertensive patients to arterial aneurysm formation.