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Case Reports
. 2021 Dec:26:101320.
doi: 10.1016/j.inat.2021.101320. Epub 2021 Jul 22.

Optic neuritis post-COVID-19 infection. A case report with meta-analysis

Mohammed A Azab  1 , Sharef Fawzy Hasaneen  1 , Hassan Hanifa  2 , Ahmed Y Azzam  3
Affiliations
Case Reports

Optic neuritis post-COVID-19 infection. A case report with meta-analysis

Mohammed A Azab et al. Interdiscip Neurosurg. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Background: In December 2019, a global pandemic of Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has invaded entire the world. The virus associated with the COVID-19 infections is SARS-CoV-2; the infections are mainly pulmonary manifesting as severe respiratory complications such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. However, there are some extra-pulmonary manifestations that are reported to be associated with SARS-CoV-2 from the published literature. We aim to report a case manifested as post-COVID-19 optic neuritis, in addition to make a quantitative analysis (meta-analysis) for the published similar case reports around the world.

Methods: We followed CARE guidelines for case reports. Also, we followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

Case presentation: A 32-year-old male patient with no previous relevant medical history, presented to the ophthalmology clinic in a tertiary hospital. He complained of a sudden drop of vision in his left eye, throbbing left sided headaches, central scotoma, color depth affection, elevated intra-ocular pressure; two weeks post-COVID-19 infection.

Results: Post-COVID optic neuritis is a possible neurological complication of the novel coronavirus infection. It was shown that females were more affected by optic neuritis and retinal complications, the left eye is more liable to drop of visual acuity post-COVID-19 infection; while there was no significant difference between both eyes regarding accompanied vision loss or blindness.

Conclusions: Optic neuritis either unilateral or bilateral could be one of the possible viral manifestations after COVID-19 infection.

Keywords: COVID-19; Optic neuritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A) OCT showing retinal nerve papilla mild swelling; B) fundus examination showing mild papilledema; D) Axial T2 MRI showing left optic nerve swelling of the retro-bulbar intra-orbital segment.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
PRISMA flow diagram.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Cochrane risk of bias assessment.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Forest plot for the studies included in quantitative synthesis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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