The Many Hats of Herpes

HSV is the most common infectious cause of blindness in the developed world.¹ Risk factors for HSV activation or recurrence include stress, ultraviolet exposure, trauma, menstruation and illness.^1,2 Herpetic eye disease (HED) is typically unilateral and recurrent in the same eye. Patients with history of atopy, immune-compromise or immunosuppression can present with bilateral or more recurrent herpetic disease.²

Manic (Foveal) Depression

A 73-year-old Hispanic female presented with blurry vision and distortion in her right eye, which she said began about five years earlier. She reported a slow, steady progressive loss of vision in that eye.

The Day I Became My Own Patient

I (Dr. Kabat) must have burned my tongue on something. That was the only logical explanation. I was eating a delicious dinner on my 54th birthday, but it didn’t taste right. In fact, it barely tasted at all. Maybe some more salt? Nope…well, this is depressing. It’ll be better tomorrow, I thought.

Breakfast the next morning was equally bland. At work, I noticed that my right eye was tearing excessively, and that was unusual. Did I injure it somehow? Well, the eye felt a little bit scratchy. Some artificial tears should take care of it. Unfortunately, it kept on tearing throughout the day, and my eye felt… funny. Not painful, but almost like I had put a drop of tetracaine in my eye. Boy, this really isn’t my week.

It wasn’t until I started shaving on the third day that I realized what was going on. As I tried to puff out my cheeks, I found myself sputtering and spitting on the mirror. I looked closer at my face. I smiled a wide grin, and to my astonishment, only the left side of my face responded.

That’s a Foul

A 32-year-old Caucasian male reported to the clinic with a chief complaint of vision loss in his left eye following trauma received during a basketball game. He explained that he had been hit around the left eye by an elbow during a game, saw an impressive flash of light and now felt some of the floor was missing or foggy. His systemic and ocular histories were unremarkable and he denied exposure to chemicals or allergies of any kind.