A Case of Asteroid Hyalitis

ABSTRACT

Asteroid hyalitis is a condition in which many creamy or dull-white opacities are suspended in the vitreous. The author has recently encountered a case of asteroid hyalitis in a 68 year old Korean woman. The asteroid bodies are small discrete particles, disc-shaped or spherical, sometimes marshalled in strands and columns sometimes in bundles, but more usually showing no roderly arrangement. With the ophthalmoscope, they are seen by reflected light as creamy or white and shiny, looking like snowballs or stars in the night sky. A brief review of the literature is described.