[Clinical case of the month. Acute post-traumatic panophthalmitis]

Panophtalmitis is an intra-ocular and intra-orbital rare infection, but its consequences are often horrendous, with loss of both function and anatomy of the eye. The surgical approach and the antibiotherapy should be given as soon as possible, both by intra-vitreal and intra-venous injections. We report the case of a 49-year-old man who developed a Bacillus cereus panophtalmitis. A delay in the diagnosis lead to the loss of vision and the evisceration of the sick eye. Bacillus cereus panopthalmitis should be suspected in all cases of post-traumatic endophtalmitis with a soiled metallic foreign body, in patients with important local inflammatory signs as well as systemic signs. Vitrectomy, surgical extraction of the foreign body, intra-vitreal and systemic antibiotherapies should be given as soon as possible, even before the results of the bacteriological analysis.