[Massive subretinal hemorrhage in the course of age-related macular degeneration: preliminary study].

We retrospectively studied 58 eyes with a subretinal haemorrhage > or = 5 disc areas related to age-related macular degeneration. The subretinal new vessels which caused the haemorrhage were occult or mixed except in 2 cases of well-defined new vessels where the haemorrhage appeared after a trauma. A pigment epithelium detachment was present in 1/3 of the cases before the haemorrhage. 36% of the patients had one or more important haemorrhagic recurrences. In 32% of the cases, the visual acuity before the haemorrhage was > or = 4/10. The final evolution resulted in an important fibroglial and atrophic central scar with a dramatic loss of visual acuity (85% VA < 0,1).