Hypoparathyroidism: A dark horse differential in young age cataracts

Abstract

In India, cataracts account for the lion’s share of cases of blindness. Age is still the single most important risk factor for cataracts. Cataracts in the young adult age group are less common and are usually secondary to various local and systemic conditions. The aetiology may be a challenging one to ascertain in certain cases of young-age cataracts. A rapidly developing cataract in a young age individual may further add to the diagnostic dilemma especially when the patient presents with multi-system affection necessitating the widening of the horizons of suspected local and systemic pathologies at play. Therefore, we report a case of a 25-year-old lady who presented with a history of seizures, headache, disc oedema and progressive bilateral blurring of vision due to rapidly developing cataracts over 4 months in a case of primary hypoparathyroidism. Correction of the underlying abnormalities resulted in the resolution of disc oedema and headache. Furthermore, the patient had no episodes of seizures in the 1½ years of follow-up. In addition, full visual recovery was achieved after bilateral cataract surgery. Awareness of this rare presentation can help in the early diagnosis and evaluation of cataracts, besides correction of the systemic pathologies for an overall better patient outcome.