Descemet’s membrane tears following forceps delivery

Abstract

: To report a case series on corneal trauma induced by forceps assisted vaginal delivery.: Case records of six patients who had clinical features suggestive of corneal trauma induced by forceps delivery were retrospectively reviewed and analysed. Vertical to oblique corneal Descemet’s membrane (DM) tears were noted in all 6 patients which included 2 males and 4 females. Right eye was involved in all patients and one patient had bilateral involvement. The age of presentation ranged from 5 to 39 years. Three patients had visual acuity better than 6/18 and three had worse than 6/18 in their affected eyes. All patients had corneal astigmatism in the range of 1.75 to 8 diopters. : A complicated vaginal delivery should be anticipated at the earliest by the obstetrician and an apt decision on the mode of delivery has to be attempted in order to prevent avoidable ocular trauma, especially in forceps assisted vaginal deliveries. All neonates who are born by forceps assisted vaginal delivery require mandatory referral to an ophthalmologist to rule out any ocular trauma. Early intervention can prevent irreversible vision loss due to amblyopia.