Bilateral Multifocal Choroiditis following COVID-19 Vaccination

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To report a case of bilateral choroiditis following COVID-19 vaccination.Study Design: Case report.Results: A 34-year old male presented with visual loss one week after the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Examination showed large serous detachment of the macula in the right eye and severe choroidal thickening noted on ultrasonography in both eyes. The patient’s condition improved rapidly with oral corticosteroids with significant resolution of the serous detachments within two weeks of initiating treatment and complete visual recovery subsequently.Conclusions: The onset of ocular symptoms starting within one week following vaccination suggests an inflammatory or autoimmune response to the vaccine. Ophthalmologists should consider the option of autoimmune and other inflammatory ocular problems, which may manifest as uveitis, following COVID-19 vaccination. Timely diagnosis and treatment with corticosteroids can result in good visual and structural outcome.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• COVID-19 vaccination
• choroiditis following vaccination
• uveitis following vaccination
• Covishield vaccine

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Financial disclosures

None of the authors have any commercial interests related to materials or techniques described in this study to disclose.

Author’s contribution

All persons designated as authors qualify for authorship, and all those who qualify are listed. Each author has participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.

Conceptualization, first draft, images, interpretation of results: Drs. Goyal and Murthy. Patient was managed by Dr Goyal and Dr Annum. Final draft revision, acquisition of images, corrections, formatting images: Drs. Goyal and Murthy

Authorship statement

The manuscript has been read and approved by the authors, the requirements for authorship as stated earlier have been met, and each author believes that the manuscript represents their own work

Additional information

Funding

For Dr Mallika Goyal and Dr Sridhar Annum: none For Dr Somasheila I Murthy: funding provided by Hyderabad Eye Research Foundation, Hyderabad, India. The funders had no role in the preparation, review or approval of the manuscript.