Rips of the retinal pigmentepithelium.

A rip or rupture of the detached retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) with subsequent retraction of that layer is an often misdiagnosed affection of the posterior pole of the eye. The histologic appearance of this entity has to our knowledge not yet been published, but the fundus aspect and fluorescein angiography show that the focal absence of the pigmentepithelial layer is very likely. A rip is only seen in older age and it always appears in a detached RPE that often exists in combination with other features of a senile macular degeneration. Mostly the rip arises spontaneously but it may develop sometimes directly after laser coagulation of the detached RPE.