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

Mature corticonuclear cataract with a cataracta nigra component

A mature cataract is one in which the entire lens substance is opaque. An immature cataract is one in which there is partial lens opacification. The vast majority of cataracts subjected to surgery in the USA fall into the latter stage, i.e. the immature stage. In the photo, the dark central portion of the lens falls into the cataracta nigra category. When removed from the eye, the cataract is seen to be a dark mahagony in color rather than black. This is the ultimate stage of a nuclear cataract.

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