Adult blindness secondary to vitamin A deficiency associated with an eating disorder.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

We examined an adult patient who lost one eye due to severe keratomalacia secondary to self-induced vitamin A deficiency.

METHODS:

This case report provides a clinical, ophthalmologic, and laboratory description in addition to a review of the medical literature.

RESULTS:

A 33-y-old woman with a 17-y history of an eating disorder presented with bilateral conjunctival xerosis, an infected corneal ulcer in the right eye and a large descemetocele in the left eye. Laboratory and clinical findings were consistent with vitamin A deficiency. Despite a tectonic penetrating keratoplasty, her left eye perforated and had to be eviscerated. In parallel, vitamin A replacement improved her clinical status and the ocular findings in her right eye.

CONCLUSIONS:

The present report indicates that vitamin A deficiency secondary to eating disorders should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients with severe dry eye and corneal ulceration.

• Authors: Antonio Augusto Velasco Cruz, Flávia A Attié-Castro, Sandra L Fernandes, Jussara Fialho F Cortes, Paulo de Tarso P Pierre-Filho, Eduardo Melani Rocha, Júlio Sérgio Marchini
• Journal: Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.) (Nutrition) Vol. 21 Issue 5 Pg. 630-3 (May 2005) ISSN: 0899-9007 [Print] United States
• PMID: 15850971 (Publication Type: Case Reports, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Vitamin A

Topics

• Adult
• Blindness (etiology)
• Conjunctival Diseases (diagnosis, etiology)
• Corneal Ulcer (diagnosis, etiology)
• Diagnosis, Differential
• Eye Evisceration
• Feeding and Eating Disorders (complications)
• Female
• Humans
• Treatment Outcome
• Vitamin A (therapeutic use)
• Vitamin A Deficiency (complications, diagnosis, drug therapy)
• Xerophthalmia (diagnosis, etiology)