Retinal hemorrhage in severe anemia in children: A Case Report

Corresponding author: Shashi Kant Dhir, MD, IAP Fellowship in Neonatology, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, Punjab, India [email protected] This article may be cited as: Dhir S K, Kaur A, Kaur G, Batta M, Kaur A, Gupta M. Retinal hemorrhage in severe anemia in children: A Case Report. Int J Com Health and Med Res 2015;1(1):30-2. Article Received on: 10-11-15 Accepted on: 12-12-2015 NTRODUCTION Anemia is a common problem in children. Most of the complications of severe anemia are well documented but less literature is available on ocular complications of anemia. The most common ocular manifestations described are retinal hemorrhages, tortuous retinal veins, cotton-wool exudates and disc edema. 1 There is paucity of data on ocular complications of anemia in children and most of the cases of severe anemia with or without thrombocytopenia exhibiting the retinal hemorrhages have been described in adults. 2–5 The long term impact of this complication is significant and awareness of presence of retinal hemorrhages will help the pediatricians in early identification of the disease and treatment options, if needed. We present one case of severe anemia presenting with sudden I Retinal hemorrhages are usually seen in diabetes, hypertension, trauma, bleeding diathesis and in conditions associated with raised intracranial pressure and less commonly with severe anemia. The retinal hemorrhages in the megaloblastic anemia have been reported in adults but this finding in children is rare. We present one case of severe anemia presenting with sudden unilateral painless loss of vision due to retinal hemorrhages.