Corneal Dellen

Marafon, Samara Barbara

doi:10.5935/0004-2749.2023-0060

A 62-year-old woman complained of blurred vision 7 days postoperatively. She had undergone glaucoma surgery with Ahmed’s device due to neovascular secondary glaucoma in her only eye. Since day 1, she had been treated with gatifloxacin, prednisolone QID, and artificial tears. The glaucoma specialist prescribed eye lubricant and referred the patient to the cornea department. The image shows the right eye on postoperative day 10 (Figure 1). Corneal dellen is caused by tear film interruptions and local cornea dehydration(¹,²), usually adjacent to elevated areas, with limbal lesions and pterygium as the most common causes. Corneal dellen has been described following strabismus and filtering surgeries(³,⁴). It may lead to corneal perforation if left untreated(²).

Figure 1.
Corneal dellen following glaucoma device surgery

Funding: This study received no specific financial support.

REFERENCES

¹ Fuchs A. Pathological dimples (“Dellen”) of the cornea. Am J Ophthalmol. 1929;12(11):2-5.
² Krachmer J, Mannis M, Holland E. Cornea.:fundamentals, diagnosis and management. 3rd ed. New York: Elsevier; 2011.
³ Fresina M, Campos EC. Corneal “Dellen” as a complication of strabismus surgery. Eye(Lond). 2009;23(1):161-3.
⁴ González-Gomez A, González de Gor Crooke JL, García-Ben A, García-Campos JM. Dellen and corneal perforation after bilateral pterygium excision in a patient with no risk factors. BMJ Case Rep [Internet] 2015;[cited 2020 May 24]2015: bcr2015213319. Available from: Case Report: Dellen and corneal perforation after bilateral pterygium excision in a patient with no risk factors - PMC (nih.gov)

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
27 May 2024
Date of issue
2024

History

Received
08 Mar 2023
Accepted
25 Apr 2023

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

[1] ¹ Fuchs A. Pathological dimples (“Dellen”) of the cornea. Am J Ophthalmol. 1929;12(11):2-5.

[2] ² Krachmer J, Mannis M, Holland E. Cornea.:fundamentals, diagnosis and management. 3rd ed. New York: Elsevier; 2011.

[3] ³ Fresina M, Campos EC. Corneal “Dellen” as a complication of strabismus surgery. Eye(Lond). 2009;23(1):161-3.

[4] ⁴ González-Gomez A, González de Gor Crooke JL, García-Ben A, García-Campos JM. Dellen and corneal perforation after bilateral pterygium excision in a patient with no risk factors. BMJ Case Rep [Internet] 2015;[cited 2020 May 24]2015: bcr2015213319. Available from: Case Report: Dellen and corneal perforation after bilateral pterygium excision in a patient with no risk factors - PMC (nih.gov)