I saw my first retinal detachment a few weeks ago. I have a slit lamp photo I took of my patient in the emergency department using my digital camera. His anterior vitreous was littered with a mix of pigmented and white cells. This finding is dubbed, ‘Shafer’s sign’. Its presence highly suggests a retinal detachment.

For those of my colleagues, this is named after Donald Shafer, of MEETH. Don Shafer graduated from Columbia University and Cornell Medical College. Some texts misspell his name as “Shaffer”.

medicine ophthalmology