Central Serous Chorioretinopathy and COVID-19; A Case Series

Author(s): Ghina El Chakik, Majd Haddam, Charbel Wahab, Jad Ayash, Fadi Maalouf

Since the emergence of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its declaration as a global pandemic till now, scientists and physicians are still in the process of discovering the health implications caused by the infection. As for the ocular manifestations of COVID-19, the most common findings are ocular dryness, conjunctivitis, refractive error exacerbation and retinal vasculature occlusion. Central serous chorio-retinopathy (CSCR) is a type of retinopathy characterized by neuroepithelium detachment with the accumulation of serous sub-retinal fluid. Risk factors include exogenous corticosteroid usage, type A personality, hypertension and others. No correlation has been found between COVID-19 and central serous chorioretinopathy so far except for the previously known correlation where steroids, commonly used to treat COVID-19 patients, can trigger CSCR. The objective of our case series is to demonstrate cases of CSCR post COVID-19 infection and propose a possible mechanism that would define COVID-19 as a potential risk factor of CSCR due to the sympathetic system activation correlated with this infection.