Ocular manifestations of COVID-19: facts and figures from a tertiary care center

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 patients presenting with ocular manifestations are from 0.8% to 32% of patients seen in the ED. The available literature is scarce regarding COVID-19 patients presenting with ocular manifestations from the Middle Eastern region. PURPOSE: This study aims to report the incidence of ocular signs and symptoms in COVID-19 patients and find any correlation between the occurrence of ocular manifestations and patients’ comorbidities. METHODS: All patients having the primary diagnosis of COVID-19 infection and concurrent ocular manifestations on admission to our tertiary COVID-19 health care centre were included in the study. The patient’s demographic data, comorbidities, and type of ocular manifestations were recorded from the patients’ health records retrospectively. RESULTS: In our study, 39 (7.8%) patients presented with ocular manifestations. The majority of COVID-19 patients were male, and 200 (20%) patients had a history of other comorbidities. The majority of our patients had hyperaemia (13 [33.3%]), followed by eye pain (9 [23.1%]), epiphora (8 [20.5%]), burning sensation (4 [10.3%]), and photophobia (2 [5.1%]) patients. There was no statistically significant difference in the occurrence of ocular manifestations and patients’ gender or comorbidities (p > .05). CONCLUSION: The occurrence of ocular manifestations was lower compared to the present literature. There was no significant association between the occurrence of ocular manifestations and the patient’s gender or comorbidities.