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. 2021 May 14;11(1):14.
doi: 10.1186/s12348-021-00244-4.

"Old wine in a new bottle" - post COVID-19 infection, central serous chorioretinopathy and the steroids

Srinivasan Sanjay  1 , Poornachandra B Gowda  2 , Bhimasena Rao  3   4 , Deepashri Mutalik  5 , Padmamalini Mahendradas  5 , Ankush Kawali  5 , Rohit Shetty  6
Affiliations

"Old wine in a new bottle" - post COVID-19 infection, central serous chorioretinopathy and the steroids

Srinivasan Sanjay et al. J Ophthalmic Inflamm Infect. .

Abstract

Introduction: Corona virus disease (COVID-19) pandemic can cause myriad of ocular manifestations. We report a case of unilateral multi focal central serous retinopathy, post COVID-19 infection in an Asian Indian female.

Case presentation: A 42-year-old female presented to us with unilateral blurring, in the right eye (OD), 12 days after COVID-19 infection. She had fever, chills, shortness of breath and cough with tiredness and was COVID- RT PCR positive. She was administered intravenous and oral antibiotics with injection heparin/remdesivir, during her 7 day stay at the hospital. She was also on steroid inhalers. She had no systemic history of note. On ocular evaluation, her corrected distance visual acuity was 20/40 in OD and 20/20 in left eye (OS). Anterior segment was normal. Anterior vitreous was clear. Fundus examination of the OD showed central serous retinopathy (CSCR) with OS being normal.

Conclusion: CSCR can occur post COVID-19 due to steroid administration and physicians administering it should be aware of this and refer the patients to an ophthalmologist earlier.

Keywords: Central serous chorioretinopathy; Corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19); Inhalational steroids; Ophthalmic manifestations; Oral steroids; Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SD-OCT).

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Conflict of interest statement

None.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Chest X ray PA view of the lung showing bilateral ground glass opacities with left lung consolidation during her admission
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a shows a spectral domain optical coherence tomography scan across the macula of the OD. The white arrow points to a doom shaped elevation which is the serous retinopathy. Also in the scan is a smaller doom which represents retinal pigment epithelial detachment. b shows the normal scan of OS
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
a-e fundus fluoroscein angiography (FFA) of the OD from early phases a,b to later phases c-e. The yellow arrows point to a pinpoint leak initially and increasing in size in later phases. The black arrow with yellow arrow head adjacent to optic disc shows a mixed inkblot and smoke stack pattern. f- shows normal left eye
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
shows a spectral domain optical coherence tomography scan across the macula of the OD with reduction of the sub-retinal fluid and the pigment epithelial detachment a month later
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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