EyeRounds Online Atlas of Ophthalmology

Contributor: William Charles Caccamise, Sr, MD, Retired Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry

*Dr. Caccamise has very generously shared his images of patients taken while operating during the "eye season" in rural India as well as those from his private practice during the 1960's and 1970's. Many of his images are significant for their historical perspective and for techniques and conditions seen in settings in undeveloped areas.

Category: Cataract

A discussion of the nuclear cataract

The stages in loss of clarity of the lens nucleus are: 1.nuclear sclerosis - a slight loss of normal clarity which does not elicit a circular reflex with the direct ophthalmoscope 2. slight nuclear cataract with the first appearance of the circular reflex with the ophthaloscope 3. definite nuclear cataract 4. cataracta brunescens and finally 5. cataracta nigra - cataract appears black in the pupil, but is seen to be mahogany in color when extracted from the eye. Prior to the slit-lamp, it frequently was not recognized that the patient's loss of vision was due to a cataract. It was concluded that a black pupil indicated the absence of a cataract. The slit-lamp revolutionized the evaluation of cataracts.

Ophthalmic Atlas Images by EyeRounds.org, The University of Iowa are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.