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Ophthalmoscopy in COVID-19 low-risk patients
  1. André Jorge1,
  2. Ana Inês Martins1,
  3. Margarida Prata2,
  4. Cláudia Nazareth3,
  5. João Cardoso4,
  6. Pedro Guilherme Vaz4,
  7. João Lemos1,5
  1. 1 Neurology Department, Hospital and University Centre of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  2. 2 Infectious Diseases Department, Hospital and University Centre of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  3. 3 Hospital and University Centre of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  4. 4 New University of Lisbon Laboratory for Instrumentation Biomedical Engineering and Radiation Physics, Coimbra, Portugal
  5. 5 University of Coimbra Faculty of Medicine, Coimbra, Portugal
  1. Correspondence to João Lemos, Coimbra University Hospital Centre, Neurology Department, Praceta Professor Mota Pinto, Coimbra 3000-075, Portugal; merrin72{at}hotmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/practneurol-2020-002650

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    Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an urgent need to develop protective measures to ensure patient and healthcare worker safety in clinical situations.

    Direct/monocular ophthalmoscopy is particularly difficult to perform safely, given the very close proximity of the patient and the clinician. However, ophthalmoscopy is an important and on occasion an irreplaceable element of the neurological examination. It is particularly important for identifying papilloedema in headache, optic disc oedema and/or other retinal findings in acute visual loss, temporal disc atrophy in suspected multiple sclerosis or simply for reassuring someone with primary headache where the examination is otherwise normal or there are only superficial optic nerve drusen.1

    Using an ophthalmoscope when wearing adequate personal protective equipment can be challenging. From our experience, it is impractical to visualise the optic fundi while wearing …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors AJ contributed to acquisition, analysis and interpretation of the data and drafting of the manuscript. AIM contributed to acquisition, analysis and interpretation of the data. MP, CN, JC and PGV contributed to concept and design, and critical revision of manuscript for intellectual content. JL contributed to acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of the data, drafting of the manuscript, study supervision, concept and design, and critical revision of manuscript for intellectual content.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned. Externally peer reviewed by Nick Davies, London, UK.

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