Definition of Eye, small The related term "anophthalmia" means
no eye and refers to absence of the globe and ocular tissue from
the orbit. Microphthalmia may involve one or both eyes. It may
occur in isolation with no associated malformations or it may be
part of a multiple congenital malformation syndrome as, for
example, the congenital rubella syndrome, the triploidy syndrome
(due to the presence of 69 chromosomes), the trisomy 13 syndrome
(Patau syndrome, due to an extra chromosome 13), and the Wolf-
Hirschorn syndrome (due to deletion of part of the short arm of
chromosome 4). Also called microphthalmos. Microphthalmia comes
from the Greek micro-, small + the ophthalmos, eye = small eye.
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