Long-term corneal retention of trichomes from bamboo shoots.

PURPOSE: To describe a rare case of corneal injury by trichomes of bamboo shoots.

METHODS

A 58-year-old woman rubbed her right eye after touching a bamboo shoot, not knowing that there were many trichomes adherent to her hands. Severe conjunctival congestion and chemosis developed immediately but subsided the next day without visual impairment. Many trichomes were incidentally found to be embedded in the subepithelial region of the cornea on a routine slit-lamp examination. Three days after partial removal of the trichomes under a microscope, the epithelium had healed completely.

RESULTS

Histopathologic examination showed bamboo trichomes in the epithelial scraping without inflammation.

CONCLUSIONS

Trichomes of bamboo shoots may affect and stay in the cornea without significant inflammation because of their inert nature.