[Toxoplasmic choroiditis and subretinal neovessels].

Thirty six cases of toxoplasma chorioretinitis with fundus scars were studied. Subretinal neovascularization occurred in 7 cases out of 36. Angiographically, the new vessels were located either directly on the border of scar (5 cases) or at distance with feeder vessels arising from the scar. The identification of subretinal new vessels is easy during the early phase of angiography. At the late phase, the leakage from the membrane is usually difficult to distinguish from the staining of the scar. Leakage from these new vessels can cause a sudden decrease of visual acuity (from 0.4 to central scotoma) that is not associated with inflammatory signs. The natural history of these juxtafoveolar new vessels allows a useful final acuity (0.18 after a follow-up period from 5 to 42 months). The visual outcome of toxoplasmosis choroiditis without subretinal new vessels is usually around 0.5. In 3 eyes photocoagulation of new vessels was performed with improvement in the mean final acuity (0.3). In our cases the occurrence of subretinal new vessels happened only when the healing process was achieved, from 1 to 26 years after the acute chorioretinitis.