An intraoperative discovery of a unilateral pulsating heartbeat—An atypical case of persistent foetal vasculature in the vitreous with a silent B-Scan

Abstract

The foetal vasculature gives nourishment to the developing lens and retina during embryonic development and then regresses after the formation of the retinal vessels. The failure of the foetal ocular vasculature to go through the usually planned involution results in persistent foetal vasculature (PFV), which causes blindness or severe vision loss. In this case, we are reporting a 6-week-old baby with unilateral PFV, which was not evident on ultrasound and was diagnosed incidentally during surgery. The dense, vascularized membrane typically seen behind the lens in these patients may seriously compromise cataract surgery, causing intraoperative bleeding that is sometimes severe enough to force the surgeon to abandon the surgery. The creation of new treatment approaches has been made possible by the recent improvements in micro-invasive surgical methods, which made the early treatment of PFV safer and more successful.

Keywords

• intraoperative findings
• persistent foetal vasculature
• pulsating vessel
• ultrasound