Histopathology findings following retinal tack implantation.

For the first time this report describes the histopathological findings 2 months after retinal-tack implantation in a human eye. A stainless-steel tack was implanted to seal a small retinal tear during vitrectomy because of severe proliferative diabetic retinopathy in a 38-year-old man. By gross examination the enucleated eye showed a total retinal detachment except at the site where the tack had been implanted. Histologically a fibrovascular tissue proliferation arising from the choroid had grown into the adjacent retina at the tack site. No inflammatory reaction, pigment epithelium proliferation or glial-cell proliferation attributable to the tack were observed.