Lipodystrophia Progressiva with Ocular Complications: Further Report

Abstract

This report continues and concludes the visual history of a patient with progressive lipodystrophia, whose condition was originally described before the American Ophthalmological Society in 1926. The ocular complications in this case were: right eye, corneal ulcer, pallor of the disc, the choroidal atrophy; left eye, complete clouding of the cornea, preventing any view of the fundus. The cilia were partly or completely absent on both sides. Operations to bring the eyeball forward and to cause the lids to recede resulted in corneal improvement bilaterally. In 1933, the vision in the right eye was still normal. In 1934, the patient applied for a pension for the blind. A leukoma on the cornea of the right eye had reduced vision to hand movements at one foot. There was very little movement in the left eye, and limited movement on the right side. The conjunctivae were passively congested and the scleras resembled marbles. Projection was still normal in each eye. This ocular pathology accompanied a progressive wasting away of the fatty tissue in the face, neck, and shoulders, the extremities being affected to a lesser degree. Read before the American Ophthalmological Society at Hot Springs, Virginia, June 5, 6, 7, 1935. This report continues and concludes the visual history of a patient with progressive lipodystrophia, whose condition was originally described before the American Ophthalmological Society in 1926. The ocular complications in this case were: right eye, corneal ulcer, pallor of the disc, the choroidal atrophy; left eye, complete clouding of the cornea, preventing any view of the fundus. The cilia were partly or completely absent on both sides. Operations to bring the eyeball forward and to cause the lids to recede resulted in corneal improvement bilaterally. In 1933, the vision in the right eye was still normal. In 1934, the patient applied for a pension for the blind. A leukoma on the cornea of the right eye had reduced vision to hand movements at one foot. There was very little movement in the left eye, and limited movement on the right side. The conjunctivae were passively congested and the scleras resembled marbles. Projection was still normal in each eye. This ocular pathology accompanied a progressive wasting away of the fatty tissue in the face, neck, and shoulders, the extremities being affected to a lesser degree. Read before the American Ophthalmological Society at Hot Springs, Virginia, June 5, 6, 7, 1935.