Anomalies Of Retinal Vasculature.

The normal retinal vasculature emerges from the nasal side of the optic cup. There are inferior and superior branches of both veins and arteries that soon divide again to create a major branch of each to each quadrant of the retina. The artery usually emerges nasal to the vein. In the normal retina there is a horizontal raphe across which the retinal vasculature either superiorly or inferiorly does not cross. As with any biological organism, variations from the normal vascular system can exist. An understanding of normal variations of the retinal vasculature, their frequency and types, can be useful to the ophthalmoscopist in differentiating disease conditions from benign variations. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of nonpathological retinal vascular variations. These were compared with data
reported in the litera ture to attempt to r esolve previously mentioned
discrepancies between authors.