Proliferative diabetic retinopathy in typical retinitis pigmentosa.

A 39-year-old woman with typical retinitis pigmentosa (RP) for 9 years and a positive family history of night blindness was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (DM). She developed proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) during the course of disease. She was promptly managed with pan retinal photocoagulation (PRP). PDR developing in a case of typical RP is extremely rare and has not been reported in the literature to date. Recognition of this rare, vision threatening complication, points out a definite need to further look deep into the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy.