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Apologies this is outside of the immediate area of glaucoma but I believe we do have a retinal specialist in the group and others who may have access to one.

My colleagues is working on the morphological abnormality 6920004 |Defect (morphologic abnormality)| which is to be inactivated as ambiguous.  It is used to model many concepts including the concept which you can see below and has the synonym of Retinal break:

Her question:  Is 'Retinal defect' ambiguous and could mean either ‘any type of lesion of the retina’ or ‘a break of the retina’ - I wondered if they would agree with this or if they felt that retinal defect had the same meaning as retinal break?    SNOMED also has additional concepts for 95690009 |Retinal tear (disorder)| and 302888003 |Retinal round hole (disorder)|.

We would appreciate your advice on this.

Elaine

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7 Comments

  1. Elaine Wooler

    Cindy Cai  I'd be really grateful for your comments on this item please.

  2. Eric Brown

    I wouldn't consider "retinal defect" to be a synonym for retinal tear—perhaps it could be used as a more general term for a nonspecific retinal finding. But I'm only a glaucoma surgeon, so others might have a more authoritative take on it.

  3. Cindy Cai

    Elaine Wooler I agree with Eric. "Retinal defect" is very vague and certainly is not a term that we use in the clinical setting. Truthfully, any pathology in the retina could be considered a "retinal defect" and that could range from retinal tear/detachment/neovascularization/cotton wool spot/etc. The term "retinal defect" is definitely not synonymous with a retinal break. Hope that helps!

  4. Ian Rodrigues

    Thats helpful feedback. I agree.

    So perhaps "Retinal break" should be removed as a synonymous term of 40024006 |Retinal defect (disorder)| and added as a synonymous term of 95690009 |Retinal tear (disorder)| ?

    1. Cindy Cai

      Agreed!

      1. Cindy Cai

        I thought about this some more. And "retinal break" should be more of a parent term than synonym for conditions such as retinal tear or round retinal hole. Anyway, figured I'd clarify here.

  5. Sarah Warren

    Thanks for all the comments here. They've been very useful in the changes made to this sub-hierarchy, particularly regarding the position of Retinal break, once it has been removed as a synonym from 40024006 |Retinal defect (disorder)|.