Posters

Case report: a rare finding of a polar anterior cataract after burn injury

Poster Details

First Author: S.Chiguer MOROCCO

Co Author(s): S. Chiguer   A. Khachane   M. Adil   L. Benhmidoune   R. Rachid   M. Elbelhadji     

Abstract Details

Purpose:

Chemical or thermal burns account for 7 to 18% of ocular trauma. Acid or base chemical burns are the most likely to cause serious lesions, of which corneal ulcer and limbal or conjunctival ischemia are the most common. However, several other complications have been described in the literature such as ocular hypertension, chronic dry eye, symblepharons and rarely cataracts. We report a case of an early onset cataract after chemical burn. This is unusual complication especially by its type and its time of appearance.

Setting:

Ophthalmology department, University Hospital Ibn Rochd, Faculty of medicine and pharmacy of casablanca, Hassan II University, Casablanca.

Methods:

We report here the case of a 31-years-old patient, with no medical past history,  admitted for painful red eye with a bilateral decreased  visual acuity due to an eye blast attack of sulfuric acid dating back to 3 hours prior to admission.

Results:

The initial examination found a visual acuity (VA) at 2/10 on the right and 4/10 on the left, a bilateral burn stage 4 according to Hughes classification with total desepithelialization and a subtotal limbic ischemia, an important chemosis with a calm anterior chamber. Moreover, the intraocular pression was normal. He received medical treatment  and conjunctival injections of autologous serum twice a week associated with symblepharon ring. Six days after admission, the patient presented bilateral anterior polar cataract, more diffuse on the left, with some improvement on VA going up to 7/10 on the right and 3/10 on the left.

Conclusions:

The anterior polar cataract, which is often found in congenital cataracts, remains a peculiar site of opacification of the lens during ocular burns. Cataract after ocular burns remains a late rare complication that should be sought during follow-up. Some authors have reported cases of late cataract after ocular burn. Although early cataract is exceptional, its extraction allows an improvement in visual acuity especially in case of good restitution of the ocular surface.

Financial Disclosure:

None