A subretinal neovascular membrane as a complication of endogenous Candida endophthalmitis

Abstract

A 21-year-old woman developed endophthalmitis and a macular chorioretinal lesion secondarily to a Candida infection. She had been receiving intensive systemic antibiotic and steroid therapy for pelvic inflammatory disease. Blood cultures confirmed a Candida albicans septicemia, and amphotericin B was administered intravenously. As the eye inflammation resolved, healing of the chorioretinal lesion was complicated by the development of a subretinal neovascular membrane. The authors hypothesize that the formation of the membrane was related to an inflammatory alteration of the pigment epithelium--Bruch's membrane--choriocapillaris complex. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first such report following a Candida infection of the eye.