Impending Central Retinal Vein Occlusion in a Patient with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To report a case of impending central retinal vein occlusion (iCRVO) in a COVID-19 patient.

Case Report

A 54 years old woman with COVID-19 related pneumonia presented to our emergency department complaining of scotomas and decreased vision in her right eye. Funduscopic examination and multimodal imaging revealed rare retinal hemorrhages, retinal whitening, and fern-like hypo-autofluorescent appearance typical of iCRVO. She had no risk factors other than a transient hyper-coagulability status likely related to the ongoing infection. Systemic treatment with steroids normalized her inflammatory and coagulation status and the occlusion completely resolved.

Conclusions

Retinal circulation should be considered as a potential site for thromboembolic complications from COVID-19.

KEYWORDS:

• Retina
• Covid-19
• SARS-CoV-2
• vein occlusion
• thrombosis

Acknowledgments

 

Declaration of interest

Giovanni Staurenghi is consultant for Heidelberg Engineering, the manufacturer of the instrument used to acquire the images presented in the manuscript.