Vinod Kumar Singh1, Vinod Kumar Baranwal2, Jitendra Kumar3, Anil Kumar Chandra4, Ravi Mohan Sharma5, Jyoti Sharma6, Naveen Sirohi7, Mona Dubey8
BACKGROUND
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel,
enveloped, positive, single-stranded ribose nucleic acid (RNA) beta corona virus
that causes coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). During the COVID-19 outbreak,
various ocular symptoms including conjunctivitis were reported as a manifestation
of the disease and viral RNA was found in the patients’ tears. Eye specialists may
be the first person to examine a patient suffering from COVID-19 in cases
presenting with conjunctivitis. Conjunctivitis is a very common ocular presentation
with varied causes. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the frequency of ocular
signs and symptoms in cases of COVID-19.
METHODS
In this prospective observational study, we collected and analysed data from 522
laboratory-confirmed positive cases of Covid-19 from pure dedicated COVID-19
hospital from June 2020 to December 2020. All symptomatic patients were
examined in detail and symptomatic treatment was provided taking appropriate
self-protection.
RESULTS
Between June 2020 and December 2020, a total of 522 reverse transcription
polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) confirmed patients of Covid-19 presented to
hospital were included in the study. Out of 522 patients, 421 were male and 101
were female. The mean age of the patients was 38.35 years. Out of these 522
patients, 4 patients (0.76 %) had ocular manifestations consistent with follicular
conjunctivitis, 2 patients (0.38 %) had chemosis and epiphora, 6 patients (1.14
%) had lacrimation. No patients had loss of vision or other vision threatening
events. No ocular symptoms were presented as first symptoms of COVID-19 in
any of the 522 cases.
CONCLUSIONS
In our study, we found out that the overall prevalence of ocular events is low.
Total 12 cases (2.29 %) amongst 522 COVID-19 cases had ocular manifestations.
Ocular events other than conjunctivitis and lacrimation, like chemosis and epiphora
were more common in severely ill patients. All symptomatic patients had presented
in early course of disease, majority before the hospitalization. Presentation of
ocular symptoms as initial COVID-19 symptoms was not seen in our study; no
cases were presented as initial COVID-19 symptoms.
