Patient presents to hospital with three bee stings retained in cornea

Indian clinicians have outlined their treatment of a patient in his 20s who presented with diminished vision and pain in his right eye following repeated bee stings.

The case, which was described in BMJ Case Reports, saw the patient attend the ophthalmology department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences 10 days after he was stung by a bee.

Initially the patient received topical medication from a local hospital, while family members attempted to remove the stingers with a piece of cloth.

However, the patient’s symptoms did not improve. On presentation, a slit lamp evaluation of the affected eye revealed mild circumcorneal congestion, focal corneal oedema and three intracorneal stingers.

The patient’s best corrected visual acuity was 20/30 in the right eye with an intraocular pressure (IOP) of 14 mm Hg.

Anterior segment optical coherence tomography was used to confirm the exact location of stingers.

The patient was given topical steroid and antibiotic eye drops. The stingers were removed with forceps and a needle following the application of a topical anaesthetic.

A month after the stingers were removed, the patient’s visual acuity had improved to 20/20 and his IOP was normal.