Curious case of chronic corneal oedema.

ABSTRACT

An 89-year-old man with multiple episodes of inferior corneal oedema and low-grade anterior segment inflammation over 18 months was diagnosed and managed as viral keratitis; however, the episodes kept recurring every time treatment, vis-à-vis topical steroids, were tapered or stopped. History of cataract surgery few months prior to onset of the symptoms, lack of other features of viral keratitis, such as keratic precipitates and inferior corneal oedema in the presence of slight pupillary peaking led to the suspicion of either a retained lens fragment (RLF) or other possible iatrogenic insult. This was confirmed by anterior segment optical coherence tomogram, which revealed the RLF in inferior angle; this was removed surgically as an emergency procedure. This resulted in significant improvement in the corneal oedema, as well as marked symptomatic relief confirmed by the patient.