[Cataract after lightning injury--case report]

Abstract

Lightning injuries are dangerous and often deadly trauma. We present a case of 41 year old woman who suffered an indirect lightning injury, dropping into unconsciousness followed by amnesia. Initial irritation of her left eyeball was followed by subtle changes in retinal pigment epithelium without any drop in visual acuity for a period of three months. Subsequently there began a slow deterioration of visual acuity and progression of cataract causing BCVA to drop to 5/50. Patient underwent uncomplicated cataract phacoemulsification with IOL implantation which resulted in restoring BCVA to 5/5 postoperatively. Such cases are scarce in literature.