Single cotton wool spot as a late manifestation of head trauma

Purpose: To report a patient with a single cotton wool spot (CWS) following head trauma.

Case report: A 37-year-old male electrician presented with painless paracentral blurred vision in his left eye of one month duration together with three transient episodes of obscuration of vision in the same eye lasting for 10 minutes. He reported blunt head trauma due to a fall 40 days before referral. Fundus examination at presentation was normal but after 4 months, revealed the appearance of a white spot along the superotemporal arcade in the absence of other fundus lesions. A comprehensive systemic workup was performed revealing no specific findings. Ophthalmoscopic examination after 6 weeks disclosed resolution of the CWS with no intervention. The patient's complaint of paracentral visual field defect improved and subsequent optical coherence tomography showed retinal thinning in that area.

Conclusion: Herein, we report a patient with a single CWS near the optic disc four months after head trauma along with normal systemic and paraclinical evaluations. Head trauma may thus be considered as a cause of CWS.