Background: Several reports have described structural cell damage in ocular siderosis; however, few reports have focused on the changes in optical coherence tomography (OCT). In this report, we describe a patient who presented with retinal structural changes, which improved after removal of a foreign body.
Case report: A 34-year-old male experienced the presence of a foreign body in his left eye while working with an electric drill. He did not seek medical care for 5 months when he experienced decreased visual acuity in his left eye. Corrected visual acuity of the left eye was 0.9. Mild opacity and a floating foreign body were observed in the vitreous cavity of the left eye. OCT revealed retinal reflective changes, retinal thickening, and the loss of a foveal bulge. Electroretinogram (ERG) showed reduced a-wave and b-wave (negative type), along with a considerable reduction in oscillatory potentials on the cone-rod mixed maximum response, and highly reduced rod and cone responses (nearly negative type). After surgical removal of the foreign body, corrected visual acuity of his left eye improved to 1.5, and the abnormal reflective changes of the retinal layer, retinal thickening, and the loss of foveal bulge gradually improved. However, the abnormal ERG signals did not improve.
Conclusions: OCT can reveal retinal reflective changes, retinal thickening, and the loss of a foveal bulge in a patient with ocular siderosis. Removal of the foreign body can resolved these retinal changes. This implies that such retinal reflective changes, retinal thickening, and the loss of a foveal bulge may be caused by an accumulation of iron components in the retina due to dissolution of the foreign body.
Nippon Ganka Gakkai Zasshi (J Jpn Ophthalmol Soc) 123: 771-776, 2019.