Corneal confocal microscopy for vision disturbance after an epithelial abrasion.

Purpose: To demonstrate the use of in vivo corneal confocal microscopy to reveal the reason for persistent disturbance of vision after a corneal abrasion.

Case Report: A 49-year-old man presented with a decrease in visual acuity and monocular diplopia after a traumatic corneal abrasion. Anterior segment optical coherence tomography was not beneficial. In vivo corneal confocal microscopy showed abnormal folding in the basal epithelial layer of the cornea. Based on these findings, a therapeutic abrasion of the affected epithelium was performed. Visual acuity returned to 1.0 after therapeutic abrasion, and overall findings on the eye were within physiological limits. Control corneal confocal microscopic examination confirmed reparation of the structure of epithelial cell layers.

Conclusions: The in vivo corneal confocal microscopy can reveal corneal pathologic abnormality even in cases where other methods are not beneficial. Alongside other modern methods, it may become an important tool to help locate pathologic abnormality accurately and choose the proper therapeutic strategy.