[Solar retinopathy. Rare cause of acute loss of vision].

HISTORY AND CLINICAL FINDINGS: A 15-year-old girl was admitted to hospital for acute bilateral visual deterioration and central scotoma of two days' duration. It became known on the third day that she had looked into the sun on several occasions, for several minutes at a time.

INVESTIGATIONS: In addition to the scotoma there was a visual loss to 0.05 in the right and 0.1 in the left eye. Neurological examination and imaging of the head were unremarkable. At first the visual evoked potential was prolonged (122 ms on right, 130 ms on left), but all other electrophysiological tests were normal. Fundoscopy at first showed macular oedema and pigment changes in the macula.

TREATMENT AND COURSE: Local application of prednisolone (0.5 mg five times daily) gradually improved the vision and it returned to normal after 8 weeks. The initially prolonged visual evoked potential restored to normal either. No pathophysiological reason for this was found.

CONCLUSION

In case of acute loss of vision in the absence of other neurological findings, external factors should be considered in the differential diagnosis.