[Siderosis bulbi. Is it still a problem?].

BACKGROUND

Siderosis bulbi (SB) is caused by un-removed intraocular iron-containing foreign bodies. Our retrospective study was designed to establish the number of patients treated for SB at our ophthalmology department within the past 10 years, and to find out why SB occurred.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Retrospectively, we analyzed the documentation of every patient treated at our department for ocular injury due to an intraocular metal foreign body between 1.1.1992 and 1.1.2002. Particular attention was focussed on the documentation of patients exhibiting symptoms of SB.

RESULTS

During this period of time, 48 eyes with an intraocular iron-containing foreign body were treated operatively. In 45 cases, the foreign body was removed within 3 days after injury without any symptoms of SB. Of these, three patients (6.2%) came so late for treatment that various clinical signs of SB were already present.

CONCLUSIONS

There are three major reasons for the development of SB: some patients do not come for an examination because there is no discomfort, the second reason is that the medical treatment at the first visit was too superficial and thirdly a small foreign body may also be overlooked due to deficient or inappropriate methods of examination. Therefore, sporadic cases of SB are still to be expected in the future.