Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Feb;6(1):37-40.
doi: 10.5811/cpcem.2021.10.53797.

Fungal Endophthalmitis on Ocular Ultrasound: A Case Report

Kimberly Fender  1 , Merrick Bautista  1 , Hiten Patel  1 , Benjamin Ostro  1 , Creagh Boulger  1
Affiliations

Fungal Endophthalmitis on Ocular Ultrasound: A Case Report

Kimberly Fender et al. Clin Pract Cases Emerg Med. 2022 Feb.

Abstract

Introduction: Endophthalmitis is a rare intraocular infection caused by numerous organisms from several possible sources. Fungal endophthalmitis is a rare subset of this pathology with limited diagnostics available. One of the few options to make this diagnosis is vitreous sampling, which is invasive, and results are not immediately available.

Case report: This case report describes the successful use of point-of-care ultrasound to visualize an intraocular fungal mass in a 60-year-old male who presented to the emergency department (ED) with two weeks of left eye pain and erythema approximately two months postoperative from a cataract extraction surgery.

Conclusion: Fungal endophthalmitis is a rare and challenging diagnosis. Methods of diagnosing this pathology are not readily available in the ED. Point-of-care ultrasound may be a useful adjunct for the prompt diagnosis of fungal endophthalmitis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: By the CPC-EM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. The authors disclosed none.

Figures

Image 1
Image 1
Normal ocular ultrasound with relevant anatomy.
Image 2
Image 2
Hyperechoic spherical structure seen in the posterior chamber of the left eye noted at the tip of the arrow.
Image 3
Image 3
Hypoechoic anchoring of previous spherical structure as indicated at the tip of the arrow.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Durand ML. Bacterial and fungal endophthalmitis. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2017;30(3):597–613. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Pujari A, Swamy DR, Singh R, et al. Ultrasonographic assessment of paediatric ocular emergencies: a tertiary eye hospital based observation. World J Emerg Med. 2018;9(4):272–5. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chang CC, Chen SC. Fungal eye infections: new hosts, novel emerging pathogens but no new treatments? Curr Fungal Infect Rep. 2018;2:66–70.
    1. Gursimrat KH, Dawkins RC, Paul RA, et al. Fundal endophthalmitis: a 20-year experience at a tertiary referral centre. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2020;48(7):964–72. - PubMed
    1. Corredores J, Hemo I, Jaouni T, et al. Endogenous fungal endophthalmitis: risk factors, clinical course, and visual outcomes in 13 patients. Int J Ophthalmol. 2021;14(1):97–105. - PMC - PubMed