Abstract
Purpose :
10% of COVID patients have eye symptoms1. Conjunctivitis is the most reported ocular symptom, being reported in 88.8% of all pts with eye symptoms1.
Literature search for SARS-CoV-2 presence in the conjunctiva of COVID patients with conjunctivitis.
Methods :
Review of articles dated 2020-2021 for conjunctival swabs in COVID-19 positive conjunctivitis patients using search terms: “COVID conjunctival swabs,” “COVID conjunctivitis,” and “COVID and eyes”. Search was done on Google Scholar and PubMed. Cases were excluded if patients did not have conjunctivitis or if a positive conjunctival swab was found in a patient with no clinical or lab-confirmed COVID diagnosis.
Results :
27 articles published February 2020-December 2021 were found with 223 conjunctivitis patients. We found that conjunctival swabs tested for SARS-CoV-2 using RT-PCR returned positive 54.4% of the time in COVID-19 patients with conjunctivitis. We also found that 18 patients with no conjunctivitis tested positive on conjunctival swabs.
Conclusions :
Further research is needed to study the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 in the eyes and its presence on the ocular surface. As we begin our third year of the pandemic, we expect more case reports and clinical studies on COVID conjunctivitis.
References:
Nasiri N, Sharifi H, Bazrafshan A, Noori A, Karamouzian M, Sharifi A. Ocular Manifestations of COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Ophthalmic Vis Res. 2021 Jan 20;16(1):103–12.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.