An American COVID-19 patient has temporarily lost his vision in one of his eyes, leading researchers to study a possible link between impeded vision and COVID-19. The report was created by a team of doctors from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. This case study could help us understand why the SARS-CoV-2 attacks the immune system in ways that cause the body to attack itself.
The research began with one case study of an elderly COVID-19 patient. “The patient was a man in his 70s with no history of chronic or allergic rhinosinusitis who presented to the emergency department with a headache for two weeks and vision loss in the right eye for two days. Three weeks prior, he had rhinorrhea and was diagnosed with COVID-19. He recovered from COVID-19 but developed a worsening right-sided headache one week later and right vision loss two days prior to presentation. On physical examination, right eye visual acuity was limited to hand-motion detection, with severe pain on ocular motion,” reads the study.
This is not the first case of a COVID-10 patient that suffered from impeded vision, and other examples have been investigated in the past. However, this particular case is unusual as it was also associated with great pain and discomfort. The vision appeared to be affected by inflamed sinuses, and emergency surgery is needed. However, the pain soon returned, and doctors later discovered that the patient suffered, in fact, from IgG4-related disease. After being offered treatment for three weeks, the patient’s vision fully recovered. According to previous case studies, there might be, in fact, a connection between IgG4-RD and Coronavirus. However, at the moment, there is not enough evidence to prove the certainty of this link.
