Fundus of the Eye

Fundus of the Eye

The posterior pole of the eyeball, the fun-dus, can be examined through the pupilwith an ophthalmoscope. It is reddish in color. In the nasal half lies the papilla of theoptic nerve (blind spot) (B14), where all nervefibers of the retina combine to leave the eye as the optic nerve. The papilla is a whitish disk with a central shallow depression, the excavation of the optic disk (AB15). In the papilla, the central artery divides into several branches, and the veins unite to form the central vein. The arteries are rela-tively light in color and are thin, while the veins are darker and slightly thicker. The vessels run radially in the nasal direction, while they arch in the temporal direction. Numerous vessels run to the macula (yellowspot) (B16), the area of highest visual acuity.Its traversely oval, slightly yellowish surface contains a small depression in the center, the central fovea (AB17).