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Updated: Oct 23, 2025

Multifocal Electroretinograms
Published on: December 4, 2011
ARE THERE TWO FORMS OF MULTIPLE EVANESCENT WHITE DOT SYNDROME?
Juliet Essilfie1,2,3, Tommaso Bacci1,2, Aliaa H Abdelhakim1,2,3,4
1Vitreous Retina Macula Consultants of New York, New York, New York.
Purpose:
To analyze the nature of multiple evanescent white dot syndrome (MEWDS) and differentiate an idiopathic or primary form of MEWDS from a secondary form that is seen in association with other clinical conditions affecting the posterior segment of the eye.
Methods:
Clinical and multimodal imaging findings including color fundus photography, fundus autofluorescence, fluorescein angiography, indocyanine green angiography, spectral-domain optical coherence tomography, and optical coherence tomography angiography of patients with secondary MEWDS are presented.
Results:
Twenty consecutive patients with secondary MEWDS were evaluated. Fifteen patients were female. Most were young adults aged between 20 to 40 years with myopia (less than -6 diopters). Pathologic conditions associated with the secondary MEWDS reaction were high myopia (greater than -6 diopters) in two eyes, previous vitreoretinal surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment in 2 eyes, and manifestations of multifocal choroiditis in 18 eyes. In all eyes, the MEWDS lesions followed a course of progression and resolution independent from the underlying condition.
Conclusion:
Secondary MEWDS seems to be an epiphenomenon ("EpiMEWDS") that may be seen in association with clinical manifestations disruptive to the choriocapillaris-Bruch membrane-retinal pigment epithelium complex.
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