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Bilateral Relentless Placoid Chorioretinitis Following Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccination: Specific Antigenic
Deepaysh Dutt Charanjeet Singh Dutt1, Jonathan Lam1, Josephine Richards1
1Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia.
Purpose:
To report bilateral relentless placoid chorioretinitis following Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine administration.
Case Report:
A 55-year-old Caucasian New Zealand-born woman presented with progressive left eye vision loss and bilateral photopsias and floaters occurring 10 days after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination. She had a similar self-limiting episode of photopsias and floaters without vision loss 1 year prior after receiving the influenza vaccine. Snellen visual acuity (VA) was 20/25 in the right eye, and count fingers at 2 m in the left eye. Bilateral, active, creamy, plaque-like lesions were present at the level of the retinal pigment epithelium and choroid, suggestive of relentless placoid chorioretinitis. Commencement of 100 mg oral prednisolone and 3 g mycophenolate daily resulted in recovery of the foveal ellipsoid layer with VA of 20/25 in each eye after 8 weeks. Subsequent activations occurred following COVID-19 infection and respiratory infection.
Conclusion:
This is the first reported case of relentless placoid chorioretinitis occurring as a potential side-effect of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccination, and not infection, could be assumed to be the likely trigger. Subsequent flares following COVID-19 and a nonspecific respiratory infection during periods of inadequate immunosuppression suggest that a COVID-19 antigen or general immune activation could also be the trigger.
