Ocular Manifestations in Symptomatic Covid-19 Patients

Background and objective: As we are in the era of COVID-19 as which is new disease for our communities and we are responsible for what’s new in our ophthalmology world, we want to report the new ocular finding in patients that got the infection and how this affected their vision. Methods: The study was a hospital based prospective cross-sectional study which included patients with recent COVID-19 infection. The study was conducted in ophthalmology department of Erbil Teaching Hospital in Erbil city from June 2021 till April 2022. The participants were recruited from the outpatient clinic in a non-probability convenience sampling way. Results:The most common ocular disease encountered in COVID-19 patients was posterior subcapsular cataract. Their ages were between 26->56. The cataract developed in twelve patients and it was bilateral in nine cases (18 eyes) with a varying degree of density. The next most common manifestation was multiple punctate epitheliopathy found in nine patients which was bilateral in all of them. Follicular conjunctivitis was encountered in eight patients; it resolved in a period of 5 to 8 days after the prescription of topical ant-inflammatory medications. Regarding the retina, eight patients had central retinal vein occlusion while branch retinal vein occlusion developed in two patients. Central serous chorioretinopathy developed in three patients and it was unilateral (3 eyes). Conclusion:COVID-19 infection is a multi-systemic disease can cause a variety of ocular clinical symptoms and complications. Blurred vision and conjunctivitis like features are the most common ocular presentation of the infection. Keywords: COVID-19, Posterior subcapsular cataract, Follicular conjunctivitis, Central serous chorioretinopathy.