[Treatment of retinal capillary angiomas of von Hippel's disease]

Twelve patients with Von Hippel's disease were observed by the authors during the last decade. 4 patients developed new retinal or papillary angiomas during the follow-up period (1 to 10 years with an average of 4,5 years). 55 retinal capillary angiomas and 2 papillary angiomas were observed in the present series. All retinal angiomas were submitted to treatment. Cryotreatment under biomicroscopic control of the fundus was applied on 11 angiomas, argon laser photocoagulation was applied on 36 angiomas, and 8 angiomas were treated with both techniques. Clinical destruction of the angiomas and normalization of the feeder vessels caliber were achieved in all cases. At the end of the follow-up period the visual acuity was the same or better in 16 of the 17 treated eyes; the visual acuity was worse in 1 eye. The smaller the retinal angioma the easier, the more efficient and the less mutilating the treatment is. Therefore the patients should be followed up at regular intervals in order to treat incipient lesions rather than large tumors.