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Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

Thermal corneal burn

Thermal corneal burn

Category(ies): Cornea
Contributor: Justin Risma, MD
Photographer: Toni Venckus, CRAand Randy Verdick, FOPS

This 68-year-old female presented a few hours after accidentally touching her eye with a hot curling iron. Her visual acuity was 20/200 and she had a very large area of opacified, irregular corneal epithelium which was loose in some areas. We applied an antibiotic ointment and placed a pressure patch. The next day, her visual acuity was 20/70 and there was a moderate epithelial defect, but a large portion of previously opacified epithelium had completely cleared. We placed a bandage contact lens and treated her with topical antibiotic drops. At one week, her visual acuity had returned to baseline and her cornea appeared clear without stromal scarring.