Doctors warn that covid-19 could cause long-term eye problems. A new study suggests that some people who survive a serious infection may develop growths in the back of their eyes that can lead to vision loss. It is not yet clear how covid-19 can cause this growth, or if people with a lighter covid-19 are also at risk of this complication.
Researchers at the French Society for Neuroradiology watched of medical records of certain patients with severe covid-19. These patients all received an MRI of the brain at some point during their illness, which enabled the researchers to look for possible abnormalities in and around the eye.
In total, they looked at data from 129 patients in 16 hospitals who were infected during the first wave of the pandemic in France, between March and May 2020. Nine of these patients (7%) have evidence of lumps on the back of the eyeball, with most growing in both eyes. Eight patients were also in the intensive care unit.
There are occasional reports of people with covid-19 having abnormal test results or health problems related to the eye, such as conjunctivitis (pink eye). But the authors say they are the first study to try to estimate how often this can happen through MRI data. The findings should be enough to convince doctors to investigate possible eye problems in patients with severe illness, they add, especially since it may be difficult to spot at first.
“Serious eye problems can go largely unnoticed, as these patients are often treated in intensive care units for much worse, life-threatening conditions,” they write in their article. published Tuesday in the journal Radiology. “Our data support the need for an examination and follow-up of these patients to provide appropriate treatment and improve the management of potentially serious ophthalmological manifestations.”
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The results do have their limitations. They can not unequivocally show that the fact that covid-19 led to this eye growth, nor can they explain how it would have happened if the disease had been responsible. One theory put forward by the authors is that the infection reaches the eyes and directly damages the retina. The other is that inflammation caused indirectly by infection is the biggest culprit. Itis it even possible that the practice of laying patients on their stomach (the inclined position) –a general intervention shown to help patients breathe more easily– Could have contributed to faulty drainage of veins connected to the eye. Existing circulatory problems, which are common in patients with diabetes, may also be a factor.
The researchers are already working on future studies to better understand these potential complications. This includes proactive study of severe covid-19 patients from recent waves of pandemic confirm whether this growth and other eye problems are really the result of the disease and not an earlier one, hidden problem. Survivors with this growth are also checked to see if they have a long riskterm vision problems. And the researchers are conducting a similar study, focus on patients with mild to moderate covid-19.
“We have launched a prospective study with dedicated high-resolution MRI images to examine the eye and orbit in patients with mild to moderate COVID,” said lead author Augustin Lecler, a radiologist and associate professor at the University of Paris. statement released by the Radiological Society of North America, which publishes Radiology. “Therefore, we will be able to know whether our findings were specific to severe COVID patients or not.”