All together

corneal abscess with hyphema and hypopyon

Abstract

Hyphema is the term used to describe a sign that corresponds to the observation of blood in the anterior chamber, an alteration that may occur due to different causes, either traumatic or inflammatory1. Hypopyon is another sign that is observed by its presentation in the anterior chamber as a whitish substance, which may be infectious or non-infectious2. In the case of the presented picture, the combination of both signs in a concurrent manner is striking, representing an important anterior chamber reaction, which appears associated to a corneal abscess, so its origin could be potentially related to an infectious process.

Although sometimes this mixed alteration of the anterior chamber may be resolved with the control of the infectious process and the improvement of the secondary inflammation, sometimes it may be necessary to perform anterior chamber washing1 and thus reduce the possibility of secondary glaucoma.