Lens and Cataract Flashcards
7 cards from real Board Certified Ophthalmologist practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Lens and Cataract flashcards as text
An elderly patient with a hypermature cataract presents with a red, painful eye, IOP of 50 mmHg, an open angle, and white particles in the anterior chamber. What is the definitive treatment?
Answer: Cataract extraction
In phacolytic glaucoma, leaked high-molecular-weight lens proteins and macrophages block the trabecular meshwork, and removing the lens is curative.
Granulomatous inflammation around retained lens material after traumatic capsule rupture is best called:
Answer: Phacoantigenic (lens-induced) uveitis
Phacoantigenic uveitis is an immune-mediated zonal granulomatous reaction to lens proteins exposed after the capsule is breached.
Long-term systemic or topical corticosteroid use most characteristically causes which type of cataract?
Answer: Posterior subcapsular
Steroid-induced cataracts are classically posterior subcapsular and depend on dose and duration.
Polychromatic iridescent "Christmas tree" lens crystals are most characteristic of which condition?
Answer: Myotonic dystrophy
Myotonic dystrophy produces multicolored cortical crystals that later progress to a posterior subcapsular stellate cataract.
A patient with pseudoexfoliation has localized zonular dialysis of about 3 clock hours. Which device is most appropriate to stabilize the capsular bag during phacoemulsification?
Answer: Capsular tension ring
A capsular tension ring spreads force evenly around the equator and supports the bag when zonular loss is mild to moderate.
An older patient with a progressing nuclear cataract reports being able to read without glasses again. What is the mechanism?
Answer: Myopic shift from a higher lens refractive index
Nuclear sclerosis raises the refractive index of the lens and causes a myopic shift known as "second sight".
True exfoliation (lamellar splitting) of the anterior lens capsule is classically caused by which exposure?
Answer: Chronic infrared heat, as in glassblowers
Long-term infrared exposure splits the anterior capsule into scroll-like layers, unlike pseudoexfoliation, which deposits fibrillar material.