Corneal Opacity in a Participant of a 161-km Mountain Bike Race at High Altitude

Morteza Khodaee; David R Torres

doi:10.1016/j.wem.2016.02.002

Corneal Opacity in a Participant of a 161-km Mountain Bike Race at High Altitude

Wilderness Environ Med. 2016 Jun;27(2):274-6. doi: 10.1016/j.wem.2016.02.002. Epub 2016 Apr 16.

Authors

Morteza Khodaee¹, David R Torres²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Family Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO (Dr Khodaee). Electronic address: morteza.khodaee@ucdenver.edu.
² Advanced Clinical Psychopharmacology, LLC, Broomfield, CO (Dr Torres).

PMID: 27095539
DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2016.02.002

Abstract

Visual dysfunction is a relatively uncommon complaint among athletes during ultraendurance races. The pathophysiology of most of these cases is unknown. Corneal opacity has been speculated as the etiology for most of reported cases. We are presenting a case of a 56-year-old man with a partial unilateral corneal opacity and edema at kilometer 150 of a 161-km mountain bike race in high altitude. He was not able to finish the race (12-hour cutoff) because of his visual symptoms. He completely recovered in 3 days with no sequelae.

Keywords: blurred vision; corneal edema; ultraendurance.

Publication types

Case Reports

MeSH terms

Acclimatization
Altitude
Bicycling*
Corneal Opacity / etiology*
Humans
Male
Middle Aged