Sense organs (eye and ear)
Vitreous body
Corpus vitreum
- Origin
- Clear gel filling the posterior four fifths of the globe, between lens and retina
- Insertion
- Attached at the ora serrata, around the optic disc and to the posterior lens capsule (ligament of Wieger)
- Function
- Keeps the globe in shape, holds the retina against the wall and transmits light without scattering
- Innervation
- Not innervated and avascular
- Movement & chain
- Lags slightly after a saccade, which explains the typical drifting floaters
- Palpation
- Slit-lamp and indirect fundoscopy; opacities move with the direction of gaze
- Clinical
- Posterior vitreous detachment (floaters, flashes), vitreous haemorrhage in proliferative retinopathy, endophthalmitis
- Segmental innervation
- No innervation of its own
- In clinical practice
- A sudden increase in floaters with flashes needs assessment within 24 hours because of the risk of a retinal tear
- Region in the model
- Sense organs (eye and ear)