Epstein-Barr virus associated acute retinal necrosis

This article reports a case of an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) associated acute retinal necrosis. A 72-year-old male patient presented in the emergency department complaining of progressive loss of vision. During patient management an acute retinal necrosis was suspected and the subsequent diagnostics from a vitreal body biopsy showed positive results only for the EBV genome. The EBV is a rare cause of ocular inflammation. With this report we would like to draw the attention of colleagues to this unusual finding. Although EBV screening is not part of the standard diagnostic procedure, its implementation in relevant clinical situations could possibly assist the differentiation between causal relationship and morbidity.