Ocular manifestations of COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 is a disease caused by a SARS-CoV-2 viral infection, a disease that was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. COVID-19, formerly known as 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) respiratory disease, was officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February 2020. By 25 May 2021, there were 33,579,116 confirmed cases with 599,109 COVID-19 deaths worldwide. The purpose of this review article is to provide an update on what is currently known about COVID-19 ocular symptoms in adults, the elderly, and children in the literature. Finally, this article will review the eye protection precautions that should be implemented in our clinics. To assess the current literature, PubMed was searched from December 2019 to 25 May 2021. Randomized trials, observational studies, case series or case reports, letters of research, and letters to editors were selected for confirmed cases of COVID-19. According to current scientific literature since the outbreak in December 2019, 205 articles have been published. Conjunctivitis, conjunctival hyperemia, and chemosis have been reported in adults with COVID-19. There have been few studies on children and elderly patients, and further research in these age groups is needed. Finally, wearing eye protection when seeing patients on a daily basis during the pandemic is essential.