Radiation Retinopathy: Case report and review

Abstract

Background: Ocular damage from radiation treatment is a well established phenomenon. Many factors are now known to influence the incidence of radiation retinopathy, including total dosage and daily fraction size. Patients who are diabetic, hypertensive or received previous chemotherapy are more susceptible to radiation retinopathy.

Interferon-associated retinopathy in a patient with metastatic melanoma

“…These include the vascular compromise on the posterior retina, which is normally more sensitive to radiation than the peripheral retina. Nevertheless, radiotherapy in our patient was administered long before IFN therapy and visual impairment was not previously reported (11) . It is possible that after discontinuation of IFN therapy most of the retinal lesions would have spontaneously disappeared, given the reversibility of IFN-associated side effects previously reported in multiple studies (1,2) .…”

Ocular Risks From Orbital and Periorbital Radiation Therapy: A Critical Review

“…The latent period before the onset of clinically significant retinopathy is typically 6 months to 3 years but has been reported >15 years after RT (44). The latent period is shorter after higher-dose RT.…”

“…With moderate-dose orbital RT (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45), the time from radiotherapy to dry eye syndrome was reported to be 4 to 11 years, whereas with higher doses (>57 Gy), corneal vascularization and opacification secondary to ocular dryness were usually apparent within 9 to 10 months (18). Very rarely, dry eye syndrome complicated by secondary infection can cause ocular perforation.…”

Vision Loss after Cranial Radiotherapy: Case Report and Review

“…Damage to the vasculature will cause capillary closure with capillary nonperfusion becoming very prominent on a fluorescein angiogram, as seen in our patient. As a result of such ischemic conditions, neovascularization can occur, which in turn can cause vitreous hemorrhages and retinal detachment [10]. Finger and Kurli have described stages of radiation retinopathy in regards to the clinical signs, symptoms, location, and best method of visualization and the risk of vision loss.…”