Abstract
Blindness in pregnancy can occur due to cortical infarcts, retinal vascular occlusions and retinal detachment. Purtscher’s retinopathy is a rare entity causing visual loss during pregnancy and has so far been reported in association with complicated labor. We report here on a case of Purtscher’s retinopathy leading to bilateral blindness in a pre-eclamptic multigravida after an uncomplicated spontaneous delivery. The patient had no visual recovery after 3 months postpartum. Poorly controlled pregnancy-induced hypertension coupled with the hypercoagulable state of pregnancy probably led to a compromised optic nerve microvasculature and loss of retinal autoregulation. Subsequently the acute event of parturition triggered a complement-mediated leucocyte embolization to this already compromised microvasculature resulting in Purtscher’s retinopathy.
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The authors declare that they have no financial involvement or conflict of interest with the subject of this study.
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Singh, K., Jain, D. & Wallang, B. Purtscher’s retinopathy in pre-eclampsia: a blinding combination. Int Ophthalmol 34, 103–106 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-013-9739-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-013-9739-1