The retinal lesions of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis

The clinical course and ocular histopathologic findings in a case of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis are presented. Bilateral macular degeneration without any neurologic symptoms was the presenting clinical manifestation. The ocular pathologic findings consisted of multiple small retinal lesions in both eyes involving both maculae. The advanced retinal lesions consisted of uncharacteristic glial scars, while the mild retinal lesions showed selective degeneration of the inner nuclear layer and proliferation of retinal pigment epithelium. In most of the retinal lesions, there was characteristic absence of inflammatory cells.