Deferoxamine mesylate is a chelating agent used in the treatment of iron overload in patients requiring regular transfusions. Deferoxamine is most commonly administered as a slow subcutaneous infusion but continuous intravenous infusion may be required for treating life threatening cardiac complications due to iron overload.¹ Toxic retinopathy is one of the complications associated with deferoxamine, in which different manifestations including pigmentary retinopathy, bull’s eye maculopathy, and vitelliform maculopathy have been described.^2–,⁸ We report a patient who had rapid development of irreversible diffuse pigmentary retinopathy with severe visual loss while receiving continuous intravenous deferoxamine infusion.

Case report

A 17 year old β thalassaemic patient was referred for ophthalmic assessment with recent onset of colour vision impairment 4 months after commencement of continuous intravenous deferoxamine infusion. He had been on subcutaneous deferoxamine for …