Concomitant Presentation of Keratitis and Herpetic Encephalitis Secondary to Varicella Zoster Virus Infection. A Case Report
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9911-9607
Leonar Aguiar Martínez
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5372-2459
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A painful red eye and seizures are frequent symptoms in the emergency department. The Varicella Zoster virus (VZV) has ocular and central nervous system manifestations that may include the aforementioned symptoms; however, each symptom usually corresponds to isolated diseases, being unusual the coexistence of keratitis with herpetic encephalitis. This review presents the case of a 66-year-old woman who was admitted with a painful red eye and was diagnosed whit herpetic keratitis. Later, she had a focal non-motor epileptic seizure that was suspected to be related to herpetic encephalitis and, after paraclinical studies, the diagnosis of encephalitis due to VZV was confirmed. It is highlighted from this clinical case that a high diagnostic suspicion of herpetic encephalitis despite an infrequent clinical presentation and without a direct causal relationship described so far in the literature with herpetic keratitis, led to an adequate diagnosis.
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