Late keratopathy due to intraocular sand particles. A case history with misleading tests for allergy

After nine years, a boy was cured for his presumed allergic eye disease by microsurgical removal of intraocular sand particles, left in the anterior chamber after a childhood trauma. Sand being considered inert, together with seasonal variation in symptoms and misleading positive tests for allergy were to explain the doctor's delay. Involutive keratopathy eventually developed, with vessel ingrowth, severe photophobia and lacrimation, low intraocular pressure, and a visual acuity of only 1/60. Eight years after surgery there is a clear cornea and a corrected visual acuity of 6/12. The axial length of the diseased eye has remained longer than that of the healthy eye.