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| ARTICLES |
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| Year : 1982 | Volume
: 30
| Issue : 4 | Page : 355-356 |
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Superficial keratitis following solar eclipse burn
OP Billore, AP Shroff, KA Vasavada
Rotary Eye institute Navsari, Gujarat, India
Correspondence Address:
O P Billore
Rotary Eye institute Navsari, Gujarat
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
PMID: 7166419 
How to cite this article:
Billore O P, Shroff A P, Vasavada K A. Superficial keratitis following solar eclipse burn. Indian J Ophthalmol 1982;30:355-6 |
How to cite this URL:
Billore O P, Shroff A P, Vasavada K A. Superficial keratitis following solar eclipse burn. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 1982 [cited 2023 Feb 1];30:355-6. Available from: https://www.ijo.in/text.asp?1982/30/4/355/29471 |
Total Solar eclipse was seen in India on 16th February 1980 after an interval of 82 years. Following solar eclipse ultraviolet and infra red rays are emitted in the atmosphere and due to curiosity when solar eclipse is viewed with the naked eye or insufficiently protected glasses than damage to the eye occurs.
18 cases had attended Rotary Eye Institute's out patient department with the history of seeing solar eclipse out of these 6 cases had corneal involvement with superficial punctate keratitis. In these keratitis cases two had retinal involvement as well.
| Materials and methods | |  |
Cases who attended Rotary Eye Institute out patient department with the history of seeing solar eclipse were interogated whether they have seen with the naked eye or with unprotective device like smoked glass, pin hole device or with negative of the film. In each case symptoms of watering, photophobia, pain
was elicited. In each case fluorscein staining, slit lamp biomicroscopy, refraction and funduscopy was done.
| Observations | | |
Out of 18 cases who had seen solar eclipse the 7 had seen with the naked eye and I 1 had seen with the smoked glass or negative of the film. Patient came with symptoms of blurring of vision, watering and pain in the eyes [Table - 1]. Majority of them were below 30 years [Table - 2].
Out of 12 cases of retinal involvement, 8 cases had normal macula on fundus examination but they had definite history of seeing solar eclipse for a very short period. 4 cases had macular involvement varying from erythema stage to oedemaerythema stage [Table 3]. 6 cases had corneal involvement in form of superficial punctate keratitis. 3 cases had unilateral corneal involvement and 3 had bilateral involvement. Superficial punctate keratitis was seen typically in the pupillary area and in one case it was diffuse staining on sli lamp examination. All the cases were sees within 36 hours of seeing the eclipse an( symptoms became severe with the passage o the time. All cases responded to medical line of treatment within a week. They only case which took almost 10 days to recover hac bilateral punctate corneal lesion.
| Discussion | | |
The cornea is opaque to ultraviolet radiation of wave length shorter than 295 U. That radiation which causes a severe superficial ketatitis has a sharp peak at 288 U. While wave length longer than 310 U. are harmless, Infra red and ultra violet rays are emitted during solar eclipse which enters the eye at the time when eclipse of the sun is seen with the naked eye or with the insufficiently smoked glasses. Incidence is highest in the younger age group due to high transmisibility of the ocular media and curiosity to see eclipse. In this study out of 18 cases 6 had corneal involvement, 12 cases had retinal involvement but macula was normal in 3 cases. Corneal involvement was in the form of superficial punctate or diffuse keratitis. All the cases had good visual recovery. These cases responded well to medical line of treatment.
| Summary | | |
From the literature it appears that corneal involvement due to snow, irradiation and thermal burn is extensively reported but due to solar eclipse burn is not reported, hence these cases were presented.
[Table - 1], [Table - 2]
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