Asteroid hyalitis (Benson's disease) and retinal separation.

Significant association of asteroid hyalitis with other ocular diseases has beeri disclaimed by clinical (Rutherford, I933) and pathological (Rodman, Johnson, and Zimmerman, I 961) observation. The literature on retinal separation is so voluminous that oversight is possible, but a search of the literature over go years has revealed only three references (D'Oench, I889; Bailey, I926; Krejci, I963) to retinal separation associated with asteroid hyalitis. One of these patients (Bailey, I962) had diabetic retinopathy. Five patients from a group of 448 with clinical retinal separation had asteroid hyalitis. Three of them had retinal separation only in the eye with asteroid hyalitis and the other two had retinal separation in one eye and asteroid hyalitis in both. The association of these two diseases can present preoperative and operative difficulties.