Subretinal hemorrhages with or without choroidal neovascularization in the maculas of patients with pathologic myopia.

We examined 20 patients (24 eyes) who had refractive errors of -8 diopters or more and subretinal hemorrhages at the initial visit. They were divided into two groups according to fluorescein angiographic findings: 15 eyes without choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and 9 eyes with CNV. Subretinal hemorrhage without CNV was frequent in patients aged 20-39 years (mean, 36.8 years). CNV was common in patients aged 60-79 years (mean, 61.0 years). No relationship was noted between refractive error and type of hemorrhage. In the eyes without CNV, the subretinal hemorrhages disappeared spontaneously after a few months. The visual acuity of these patients was variable at the initial visit (range, 0.01-0.8), and was unchanged or improved during the follow-up period. In the eyes with CNV, the visual acuity was less than 0.1 at the initial visit and was unchanged or worse during the follow-up period.