Introduction Solar retinopathy is a form of photochemical retinal damage that occurs from direct observation of the sun and can result in temporary or permanent central vision disturbances. Clinically, the appearance of solar retinopathy will evolve and is dependent on when the patient is examined after injury. In this report, we describe a case of solar retinopathy in a young patient who engaged in sun gazing after viewing videos of this viral trend posted by non-eyecare providers on the social media platform TikTok. Case Report A 21-year-old female college student presented with a unilateral central scotoma of the left eye that coincided with fundus abnormalities and outer retinal disturbances observed on optical coherence topography. Manual segmentation of optical coherence topography scans revealed similar outer retinal findings in the asymptomatic right eye. After questioning during her examination, the patient endorsed that she had engaged in sun gazing because of purported benefits of this practice found on TikTok. The patient was warned about potential misinformation on social media platforms. Conclusion This case demonstrates that careful evaluation of optical coherence topography scans including manual segmentation, thorough case history, and awareness of circulating TikTok trends can aid in diagnosing solar retinopathy. Eyecare providers should be aware of ophthalmic-related content circulating online and should be ready to debunk misinformation.
Schroeder et al. (2024) studied this question.