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Vasospasme de l'artère centrale de la rétine induit par la maladie à coronavirus 2019

Coronavirus disease 2019 is an infectious disease with a a plethora of systemic and ocular manifestations including both anterior segment and retinal pathology

We present the case of a 36-year old woman with an unilateral spasm of the central opthalmic artery caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

A 36-year old woman presents to the emergency department with a severe sudden onset unilateral vision loss in her left eye. Her medical history included an infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ten days before. On examination her left eye visual acuity was no light perception with  normal anterior segment findings. On fundus examination there was an ischemic retinal whitening with a cherry red macula with no arterial retinal embolus. Macula ocular coherence tomography showed increased reflectivity and thickness of the inner retina. Fluorescein angiography showed a late arterial filling phase with a late venous return. An orbito-cerebral with supra-aortic vessels computed tomography angiogram showed no anomalies. Visual acuity improved to 10/10 the following day. A cardiology and internal medicine consult found no underlying causes including no vasculitis or antiphospholipid syndrome. Due to the age of the patient and no systemic underlying cause being found she was diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 induced spasm of the ophthalmic artery.

There have been reports of ophthalmologic diseases of varying severity caused by the new  coronavirus with conjunctivitis being the most frequent manifestation. This is the first reported case, to our knowledge,  of a spasm of the central ophthalmic artery. Research is still needed to find out the full spectrum of ophthalmologic and systemic manifestations of Coronavirus disease 2019.

We present the first case of a spasm of the central ophthalmic artery caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.