Combined central retinal venous occlusion with cilioretinal arterial occlusion in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) seropositive patient- A case report

ObjectivesTo report a rare case of combined central retinal venous occlusion with antecedent cilioretinal arterial occlusion secondary to presumptive HIV- related microvasculopathy. Patients and methods A 35 year old male presented with complaints of painless, defective vision (560 without improvement) in the right eye fundus examination revealed cilioretinal arterial occlusion. Two days later ,he developed central retinal venous occlusion in the same eye. Fundus photography, optical coherence tomography and fundus fluorescein angiography were used to confirm the ocular findings. Blood investigations and carotid artery doppler were ordered. Results The blood investigations, including coagulation profile, showed that the patient did not have any obvious risk factor for the vascular occlusion, other than being seropositive for HIV-1. Conclusion Retinal vascular occlusion could be a early manifestation of HIV- associated microvasculopathy when all other risk factors for vaso-occlusive diseases have been ruled out in young patients.