To the editor, R etinal vein occlusions (RVOs) are potentially sight-threatening retinal vascular diseases that usually occur in middle-aged and elderly people. In recent population based studies, the age ⁄ gender-standardized prevalence of any RVO was about five per 1000 (Rogers et al. 2010). The same studies showed that arterial hypertension and glaucomatous optic neuropathy were independent factors associated with RVOs (Liu et al. 2007; Rogers et al. 2010). As RVOs usually occur at the site of the optic nerve head (except of extrapapillary branch RVOs), the optic nerve head has been considered a ‘locus minoris resistenciae’. It appears obvious that a narrow optic nerve scleral canal (i.e. small optic disc) should be a risk factor for the development of a retinal vein occlusion. This may then be similar to a small optic nerve head being a risk factor for the presence of disc drusen and nonarteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (You et al. 2009a,b). Because the potential role of a small optic disc as risk factor for a RVO was not systematically addressed in a population-based study yet, we performed this investigation on a population-based basis.