Bee sting of the cornea - a case report

Background: Bee stings of the cornea are very rare, though its response can range from minimal inflammation to severe damage like lens dislocation, ca taract formation, iris atrophy, ophthalmoplegia and optic neuropathy. We re port on a patient with typical, severe findings. Patient: A 42-year-old patient presented with an acute, corneal bee sting o f the left eye, after he was stung only a few hours ago. The patient suffer ed from pain, blurred vision and epiphora. The left eye showed edema of the upper and lower eyelid, conjunctival hyperemia, chemosis, striate keratiti s, a purulent infiltration of the cornea above the limbus at the 7 o'clock meridian and a massive hypopyon. Further examinations showed regular ophtha lmological findings. Vision acuity was 1,0/0,4. Under therapy inflammation decreased quickly. one week after we could lokalize the stinger in the dept h of the corneal infiltration and it was removed surgically. After one mont h the eye only showed a minimal infiltration of the cornea with fine neovas cularisations. Visual acuity was 0,8. Conclusion: Clinical reactions to bee stings of the cornea are caused by to xical and immunological effects of different components of the bee venom. T hese toxical and/or inflammatory reactions can lead to severe intraocular d amage. Treatment of choice is the systemic and local application of steroid s and antibiotics as well as local therapy with antihistamins.