Coats' disease

In 1908, George Coats, curator of the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, described the clinical and histological features of an ophthalmic disorder characterized by the presence in some part of the fundus of an extensive mass of exudation and sometimes accompanied by very peculiar forms of vascular disease [1]. Coats observed that the disorder had a slow and insidious onset and occurred most frequently in one eye of otherwise healthy boys. The prominent findings were raised patches of flocculent, yellow-white exudates, usually in the posterior pole, and always beneath retinal vessels. Vascular anomalies, retinal hemorrhage, cystic retinal degeneration, and subretinal accumulations of fibrous tissue were evident microscopically. The disorder was seldom quiescent and progressed slowly to retinal detachment, cataract, glaucoma, and phthisis bulbi [1]. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.