Relationship between retinopathy and cirrhosis

AIM:To evaluate ophthalmic disorders with special attention to retinopathy in cirrhotic patients. Vitamin A deficiency-related ophthalmopathy, xerophthalmia, and color blindness may be documented in cirrhosis due to various etiologies. Retinopathy is an obscure feature of cirrhosis. METHODS: Thirty-two cirrhotic patients, who were followed up by Clinics of Gastroenterology, Izmir Ataturk Teaching and Research Hospital, were enrolled to the study. Associated systemic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hypertension were excluded. Thirty-two healthy volunteers took part as the control subjects. All participants had ophthalmologic examination in the same hospital. RESULTS: Five (15.6%) of the cirrhotic subjects had soft exudate in the retina. None of the control subjects had retinopathy (P<0.05). Intraocular pressure (IOP) measured for both eyes were also significantly lower in the cirrhotics (P<0.05 vs P= 0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in terms of other ophthalmic pathologies. The ophthalmic findings did not show up any differences according to the etiology of cirrhosis. CONCLUSION: Soft exudates may develop in cirrhotic patients probably due to loss of synthetic function of liver and hemodynamic effects of portal hypertension. Retinopathy must be sought in cirrhosis because of its severe morbidity.