Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus
Major ArticleSolar retinopathy in children
Section snippets
Subjects and Methods
In this prospective, observational case series, children who presented to the Emergency Department at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital after directly viewing the Sun during the transit of Venus on June 6, 2012, or the partial eclipse of the Sun on November 14, 2012, were examined. All patients underwent visual acuity testing, dilated fundus examination, and SD-OCT imaging (Heidelberg Engineering, Heidelberg, Germany) both on presentation and at 3 or 5 months’ follow-up. Specific
Results
Patient 1 was a 10-year-old boy who gazed at the sun with both eyes through binoculars during the partial eclipse of the Sun. On initial examination, his best-corrected visual acuity was 20/20 in the right eye and 20/40 in the left eye. There was yellow pigmentation at the fovea in both eyes. The initial SD-OCT (Figure 1A) in the right eye showed disruption at the foveal photoreceptor ellipsoid zone (previously referred to as the inner segment–outer segment line2) as well as changes at the
Discussion
Despite wide knowledge that staring at the Sun endangers vision,3 the practice continues to occur. Generally, the initial loss of vision is mild or moderate and rarely severe.4 Solar retinopathy in children may cause persistent damage to multiple retinal layers predominantly via photochemical mechanisms. It is thought that photoreceptor destruction may follow from initial photic damage to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).
In our patients, visual acuity in the affected eyes ranged from 20/20
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Cited by (0)
This study was conducted at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, Australia.