Severe ocular injury and its management following self induced plant extracts: A case report

Homemade and folk remedies' use is widely practiced in under developed countries, of the used materials are plant extracts, lemon juice and some dried insect bodies.

We report a case of severe ocular injury and its management after self administered plants seeds in both the eyes of a 47-year-old man who had bilateral severe ocular damage after he put the seeds of a plant Lepidium Sativum (Rashad) in his eyes. He reported severe ocular pain and redness, conjunctival epithelial defect and symblepharon. A conjunctival biopsy was taken which turned out to be negative for the immunological staining studies for Ocular Cicatricial Pemphegoid (OCP). The patient's visual acuity improved from 20/40 before treatment to 20/25 after treatment with no further sequelae after 3 months follow-up.

Self induced plant extracts can cause ocular complications. Public awareness is necessary to help in discouraging the use of these harmful plant extracts in human eyes.