PURPOSE: To identify retinal manifestations in patients with sickle cell disease referred to a reference eye hospital in Goiânia (GO). METHODS: Ophthalmic evaluation was made in 50 patients (100 eyes) with sickle cell disease to evaluate the most common manifestations of this group. RESULTS: Hemoglobinopathy SS was the most commonly found, followed by hemoglobin SC, AS and Stahl. Twenty-two percent of the patients had retinal changes, of these 73% were male. Retinal changes observed were: "sea fan", "black sunburst", vitreous hemorrhage, and retinal detachment. In the classification of retinopathy, 73% had proliferative form, seen in the types AS and SC and 27% had non-proliferative retinopathy, seen in patients with SS type. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a large numbers of patients with retinal changes, most of them with hemoglobinopathy SC, followed by AS and SS groups. The proliferative changes were the most commonly observed. Vitreous hemorrhage and retinal detachment were the most prevalent manifestations in proliferative retinopathy and showed to be more common in patients with SC hemoglobinopathy in the studied population.
Sickle cell disease; Hemoglobin sickle; Retina; Retinal detachment; Vitreous hemorrhage
