[Mobilization of intraocular foreign bodies by magnetic resonance tomography]

A 49-year-old patient suffered from a binocular perforating trauma with metal foreign bodies in 1974. During an MRI examination in 1992 for a lumbar spine herniation a metal foreign body was mobilised from the deeper vitreal and retinal area, now causing optical disturbances freely floating in the anterior vitreous. Refusing an operation, the patient, an electrical engineer, tried himself to remove the foreign body out of the optical axis by exposing his head to the electro-magnetic field of an induction coil (pulsed magnetic induction B at t0 of 0.26 Tesla). The foreign body was split into multiple small parts no longer disturbing the patient. To early detect a siderosis regular ophthalmological controls including ERG are necessary. This example stresses that even small intraocular metal foreign bodies are a contraindication for the usually applied field strength of MRI examinations.