Blood staining of the cornea in Hansen's disease. A light- and electron-microscopic study.

Blood staining of the cornea was studied by light and electron microscopy: a 55-year-old male with Hansen's disease had blood staining of the cornea due to intracorneal hemorrhage; he received a partial-thickness keratoplasty following 1 year after the onset of the staining. The excised specimens revealed deposits of degraded erythrocytes in the stroma. Numerous dense granules, probably of erythrocytic breakdown products, were phagocytosed by macrophages as well as parenchymal cells. The presence of macrophages was limited to the middle part of the stroma in which newly formed vessels were remarkable.