Acute Phototoxic Retinopathy due to Infrared Heater.

Although infrared heaters (IRH) are commonly seen in the daily life, ocular complications due to IRH have been reported rarely in the literature. In this case, we aimed to present acute retinal phototoxicity due to IRH exposure which has not been presented in the literature so far. A 24-years old man presented to our clinic with visual impairment in his left eye after exposure to the IRH for approximately 3 hours at a distance of 0.5 meter from left side of his face. Ophthalmic examination findings were normal in his right eye. The visual acuity of his left eye was 8/10 and there was loss in hyper-reflectivity of the ellipsoid zone under the fovea on the optical coherence tomography (OCT). In control visit on month 4, visual acuity was improved to 10/10 in the left eye and OCT findings returned to normal. Our case is the fi rst case regarding the development of acute macular damage due to IRH in the literature. The IRHs used for heating purposes should be used cautiously since they may cause retinal damage [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]