Clinical ophthalmology
Long-Term Corneal Nerve and Ocular Surface Findings After COVID-19 Requiring Hospitalisation: An Observational Follow-Up Study
Door Andreas Guttmann, Nora Woltsche, Astrid Heidinger en 7 anderen.
Inhoud in het Engels
Abstract
Purpose
Persistent ocular symptoms have been reported after COVID-19, but their relationship to ocular surface findings and corneal nerve morphology after hospitalization remains unclear. Therefore we evaluated long-term ocular surface and corneal nerve findings after SARS-CoV-2 infection in previously hospitalised patients.
Methods
In this observational study, 26 patients from a cohort of reverse transcriptase-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 cases hospitalised during the first pandemic wave underwent one ophthalmic examination after a median follow-up of 2.77 years (1.67– 3.86 years). Based on follow-up symptoms, patients were classified as the post-COVID ocular symptom group (P-COSG, n = 16) or the COVID-19 recovered without ocular symptoms group (CRWOS, n = 10). Examinations included symptom questionnaires, tear film and ocular surface assessment, meibography, corneal sensitivity testing, and in vivo confocal microscopy (IVCM) to assess corneal sub-basal nerve morphology.