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: Pathology

Vitiligo of the iris

There are two types of vitiligo of the iris, viz. primary and secondary. Since there was no history of iritis or other diseases of this eye, the diagnosis must be primary vitiligo of the iris.

In the second photo the patient has vitiligo of the skin of the lids. This suggests that the vitiligo iridis may be associated with the dermal vitiligo.

Vitiligo iridis refers to patchy areas of iris atrophy, in these cases, it is likely that they are sequelae of small pox infection.

The small patch of depigmentation or bleaching of the iris is seen along with bleaching or depigmentation of patches of skin of the lids. None of the exotic vitiligo diseases that involve the uveal tract and the skin were found, e.g. Vogt - Koyanagi - Harada.

The piebald effect from vitiligo in a well-pigmented patient in India is aburden to carry. Unfortunately, the public frequently relates the condition to leprosy and syphilis.

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