Central retinal vein occlusion concomitant with dengue fever

BACKGROUND: Dengue virus infection is on the rise and there is increasing number of ocular complications that are being reported. Most common ocular complications are macular edema, macular hemorrhages, and foveolitis. There are case reports on branch retinal vessel occlusions. Most of the ocular complications are attributed to the bleeding tendency and transudative process in dengue viral infection. This is a case report of ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) concomitant with dengue fever.

CASE PRESENTATION: A 41 year old Malay female was admitted to medical ward and diagnosed to have "dengue fever with warning signs". On the day of admission she noted sudden onset of right eye blurring of vision. She presented to our clinic 1 week later. Ocular examination revealed right eye visual acuity of <20/1000 and ischaemic CRVO with macular edema. She had no other risk factors to develop retinal vein occlusion. She progressively developed proliferative retinopathy and received multiple laser therapy. There was no anterior segment neovascularization. However, her vision improved to only 20/400 despite of resolution of macular edema and new vessels elsewhere.

CONCLUSION: Dengue virus infection is known to cause thrombocytopenia which can result in hemorrhagic events. It can also cause procoagulant state which can result in thrombotic events secondary to immune reaction. Awareness among treating physicians of such ocular complication which can result in significant morbidity for patient is necessary.