Scanning electron-microscopic studies of the collagen architecture of the human sclera--normal and pathological findings.

The arrangement of the collagen fibrils of the human sclera was analyzed in the region of the limbus cornea, the corneoscleral trabeculum, at the zone of muscle insertion and at defined areas of the internal and external surface of the sclera. Adult eyes with no apparent pathological alterations and the sclera of a patient with staphyloma were examined by scanning electron microscopy. The investigations were performed to describe regularities in the collagen architecture in normal and pathologically altered eyes to understand pathomorphologic and pathophysiologic changes in scleral diseases.