An automobile manufacturing worker from our local Ford plant presented with an acute injury to his left eye while installing a catalytic converter. A large metallic intraocular foreign body (IOFB) shot through the pars plana in a self-sealing wound and lodged in the posterior vitreous without any direct retinal injury. Since the material was made primarily of inert platinum, the IOFB was left in place and the patient has remained remarkably stable for 3 years.
We hypothesize that the platinum exhibited powerful anti-fungal and anti-bacterial effects helping to prevent infection. The diffuse diabetic macular edema with surrounding lipid also spontaneously resolved, sparking interest in intravitreal platinum as a more durable treatment for macular leakage. The results of the NIH-sponsored Phase 3 MORON Study, Might IntraOcular Platinum ResOlve Edema Better ThaN Really Expensive Anti-VEGF Agents, are eagerly anticipated in late 2020..
Yes, of course it’s APRIL FOOLS!
This patient has diabetic retinopathy with macular edema. The “IOFB” is really a broken fundus camera fixation stick projected onto the posterior pole image.
