BLINDNESS IN WHOOPING COUGH

Loss of sight in a child always attracts attention. This is especially true when the blindness occurs during the course of, or subsequent to, an infectious disease. Likewise, in these cases serious ocular manifestations are much more common in childhood. In whooping cough, a wide variety of conditions present themselves, ranging from subconjunctival hemorrhage, ecchymosis of the eyelid and bleeding from the surface of the conjunctiva, producing the so-called "bloody tears,"¹ to such serious manifestations as exophthalmos from retrobulbar hemorrhage,² bleeding into the anterior chamber,³ circulatory disturbances and detachment of the retina⁴ and embolism of both central arteries.⁵ Functional disturbances without ophthalmoscopic findings, such as total blindness, hemianopia and mind blindness associated with involvement of the cranial nerves, have also been reported.⁶

Amaurosis caused by whooping cough is not only exceedingly rare, but usually transitory in nature. Such thorough observers as Henoch⁷ and