A 27-year-old woman presented three days after experiencing blunt trauma to her left eye during a domestic violence incident. She complained of blurred vision and a “stringy” floater in the eye. Slit-lamp examination and indirect ophthalmoscopy revealed a pigmented, ribbonlike floater in the anterior vitreous, but no retinal tears, detachments or dialyses (above).

Vitreous base avulsions are sometimes referred to as the “bucket-handle sign,” named for the float­ing opacity over the peripheral retina. They have been considered pathognomonic for blunt ocular trauma, but they have also been reported spontane­ously in young patients with inferotemporal retinal dialysis and in a patient with neurofibromatosis.

Although commonly associated with retinal dialy­sis, iris trauma or hyphema, no treatment is indicat­ed in the absence of associated ocular pathology.