Four Cases of Morning Glory Syndrome

Morning glory syndrome is a rare congenital clinical entity that results from abnormal optic nerve development. In 1970, Kindler reported on ten patients having this anomaly and coined the term "morning glory syndrome" because of its similarity to the flower. The ophthalmoscopic picture is characterized by an enlarged pink excavated optic disk containing a mass of white tissue at its center, surrounding the disk is a wide, grey, elevated annulus of chorioretinal pigment disturbance. The retinal vessels appear as multiple radially oriented branches near the edge of the disk. Vision is usually markedly reduced. We experienced four cases of morning glory syndrome demonstrating various ophthalmoscopic and fluorescein angiographic features.