EyeRounds Online Atlas of Ophthalmology

Contributor: William Charles Caccamise, Sr, MD, Retired Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

*Dr. Caccamise has very generously shared his images of patients taken while operating during the "eye season" in rural India as well as those from his private practice during the 1960's and 1970's. Many of his images are significant for their historical perspective and for techniques and conditions seen in settings in undeveloped areas.

Category: Cataract

Cataracta calcarea: Calcified complicated cataract

While examining this calcifying cataractous lens with the slit-lamp, the examiner would think that he were looking at chips in a marble quarry in the Himalayas. " Calcium salts may impregnate longstanding cataracts (cataracta calcarea). The abnormal calcification of the lens is an example of dystrophic calcification. " - from Yanoff and Fine, Ocular Pathology- p. 375.

This complicated cataract has become calcified. It is in an eye with longstanding retinal detachment and chronic uveitis with posterior synechiae. " Secondary cataract " is synonymous with cataracta complicata/ complicated cataract.

Subluxated calcified cataract

Calcium salts have impregnated this totally neglected and longstanding cataract. The photo was taken by Dr. Caccamise at the Eye Clinic in 1966.

Ophthalmic Atlas Images by EyeRounds.org, The University of Iowa are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.