TARANTULA HAIRS AS CORNEAL FOREIGN-BODIES

A 22 year-old-man and owner of several tarantulas visited his ophthalm ologist because of red itchy eyes. Additionally to kerato-conjunctivit is epidemica, uncommon hairs were found especially in his left cornea. Corrected visual acuity was 0.8. According to literature these spider hairs can induce granulomas in the meaning of ophthalmia nodosa, and even migrate inside the eye. Therefore we removed as many hairs as pos sible, but we left two? not to cause iatrogen perforation. The penetra tion depth was measured by laser tomography. Local steroids successful ly prevented further granuloma formation. Regular ophthalmological con trols are important to early detect possible changes, and if necessary to remove these hairs even from deeper corneal layers, in case by ker atectomy.