Emergency Department Doppler Assessment of a Central Retinal Artery Occlusion: Case Report.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2024

Publication Title

Clinical Practice Cases in Emergency Medicine

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Vision loss is a symptom found frequently in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED). Central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) is an uncommon yet time-sensitive and critical cause of painless vision loss in which delayed diagnosis can lead to significant morbidity. Emergency medicine literature documents the ability to diagnose a CRAO using ultrasound by identifying the hyperechoic thrombus-coined the retrobulbar spot sign.

CASE REPORT: We present the case of a patient presenting with painless monocular vision loss for which CRAO was diagnosed in the ED using point-of-care ultrasound enhanced by the utilization of serial Doppler examinations as well as calculation of the central retinal artery resistive index.

CONCLUSION: Despite the pre-existing literature on point-of-care ultrasound investigation of central retinal artery occlusion, there are no emergency medicine case reports describing serial examination of the central retinal artery by spectral Doppler or calculation of arterial resistive index to improve this evaluation and monitor progression of the pathology.

Volume

8

Issue

2

First Page

115

Last Page

119

DOI

10.5811/cpcem.1520

ISSN

2474-252X

PubMed ID

38869332

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