A STUDY OF OCULAR MANIFESTATIONS AMONG COVID-19 AND POST COVID PATIENTS ATTENDING A TEACHING HOSPITAL, VISHAKAPATNAM

Introduction: At the end of 2019, the rapid spread of a new corona virus led to a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, known as COVID-19, which was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by the World Health Organization. Until now, it already killed more than 2.7 million people worldwide. Among the patients with COVID-19, approximately 10% exhibited ocular symptoms.

Objective: To study the ocular findings among covid and post covid patients who are attending a teaching hospital.

Methods And Materials: In this cross-sectional study, we have examined total 200 patients who had either Active phase of Covid(136) ,Post Covid Syndrome(pcs)(46) or Chronic Covid disease(18). All the patients had undergone anterior segment evaluation. Visual acuity measured by snellen chart, Intraocular pressure (IOP) by NCT ,Dry eye evaluation, Fundus examination and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) were done only for patients with positive findings.

Results: In this study, out of 200 Covid- 19 patients, 36 patients had clinical symptoms. Out of 36 patients, 23 were male and 13 were female aged between 18-75 years. We observed ocular findings such as Redness(7), Itching(5),tearing(8), FB sensation(6),blurring of vision(9) and swelling of eyelids(1). The ocular diseases observed were conjunctivitis(24 eyes),Dry Eyes(28 eyes),Glaucoma(10 eyes),Central serous chorioretinopathy(3 eyes), Mucormycosis(1 eye) and Herpes Zoster Ophthalmicus(1 eye).

Conclusion: Almost 18% of patients had ocular abnormalities which required treatment and became asymptomatic in 1-4 weeks. Hence all covid and post covid patients should undergo ocular examination for period of 6 months to prevent further progression of the condition and possible complications.