Ocular complications in pre-eclampsia

Abstract

Exudative retinal detachment (ERD) is a rare complication of pre-eclampsia in pregnancy. The pathophysiology is uncertain but it is thought to be due to microvasculopathy involving the choroidal circulation. We report a case of a 36-year-old woman with underlying essential hypertension complicated with impending eclampsia in her third trimester of pregnancy. She developed bilateral bullous ERD at 34 weeks of gestation. Following emergency caesarean section, her blood pressure normalised after 10 days and the ERD partially resolved spontaneously after 30 days. Her best-corrected visual acuity improved from hand movement (HM) in the right eye and counting finger (CF) in the left eye to 6/24 bilaterally after 30 days postpartum. Pre-eclampsia-induced ERD is usually managed conservatively and the prognosis is usually good.