[Ophthalmomyiasis externa caused by Oestrus ovis in Franconia].

BACKGROUND

Ophthalmological diseases caused by parasites are a very rare entity in middle europe. Ophthalmomyiasis caused by parasites living in our country are only reported as case history in literature.

PATIENT: We report on a 28-year old patient, seen in our department in august 1997 suffering from ophthalmomyiasis externa.

CASE HISTORY: The male patient was riding on a motorbike when a fly gets into his right eye. 12 hours later he had a feeling of pain in the eye. When having a closer look to his right eye, he found some fly larva (2.0! 0.8 mm) in the conjunctival sack. The patient could extract the fly larva from the conjunctival sack by himself. On examination at our department we found a unspecific irritation of the conjunctiva. The fly larva was identified as larva of oestrus ovis ("Schafsbremse").

CONCLUSION

Although ophthalmomyiasis is a very rare entity in middle europe single appearance is possible even in our country. No specific therapy was necessary in this case.