Nerves of the normal human choroid.

Abstract

The innervation of the iris and ciliary body by antagonistic autonomic elements of the long and short ciliary nerves is well known to all ophthalmologists (Adler¹). It is also known that branches of the ciliary nerves supply the choroid (Duke-Elder²). However, no detailed informations about the structure, arrangement, and distribution of nerves in the human choroid could be found in the literature. It is the purpose of this paper to fill this gap. Normal human choroid was fixed in brom formalin (ammonium bromide formalin, known as Cajal's solution). The choroid was cut in flat sections on the freezing microtome and stained with the nerve fiber stain of del Rio Hortega (double impregnation without reduction).³ These stains showed that there are two general types of nerve fibers in the human choroid: (1) fibers which branch off the ciliary nerves in small bundles and run in the intervascular spaces