Evaluation of a birth-related foveal hemorrhage in an infant using optical coherence tomography

Abstract

During the routine ophthalmologic examination of a 38-day old female infant, indirect ophthalmoscopy revealed a dense hemorrhage on the fovea and a couple of superficial hemorrhages in the nasal retina of the left eye. No hemorrhage was observed in the right eye. A hand-held spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) was used at the time of diagnosis. The hemorrhage at the nasal retina resolved in the first week of follow-up, and the foveal hemorrhage resolved 12 weeks after birth. Spectral domain optical coherence tomography was repeated once the foveal hemorrhage had resorbed, and it showed that the foveal contour had reformed without any sequelae. This case suggests that birth-related foveal hemorrhages do not cause any disturbance in the foveal architecture.

New grading criterion for retinal haemorrhages in term newborns based on deep convolutional neural networks

“…Later, with improvement in retinal examination techniques, RHs was found to be one of the most commonly identified eye abnormalities in term newborns . The incidence of RH varies in different reports, but is generally in the range of 2.6% to 50% . Most RH resolves without visual consequence.…”

“…Most RH resolves without visual consequence. Long‐lasting, dense RHs may cause visual impairments like amblyopia, myopia and haemorrhage‐related retinal toxicity . RH in term newborns is generally also associated with more severe situations, such as intracranial haemorrhage, craniocerebral injury and shaken baby syndrome .…”

“…2,3 The incidence of RH varies in different reports, but is generally in the range of 2.6% to 50%. 4,5 Most RH resolves without visual consequence. Long-lasting, dense RHs may cause visual impairments like amblyopia, myopia 6,7 and haemorrhage-related retinal toxicity.…”

“…Long-lasting, dense RHs may cause visual impairments like amblyopia, myopia 6,7 and haemorrhage-related retinal toxicity. 4 RH in term newborns is generally also associated with more severe situations, such as intracranial haemorrhage, craniocerebral injury 8,9 and shaken baby syndrome. 10 In the study we focused on haemorrhages of full-term newborns, without consideration of pre-retinal and vitreous haemorrhages that are often seen concurrently in patients with non-accidental injury and other bleeding diatheses.…”