Concert Laser Unmasks Eye Condition: EURETINA Case Reports
Case reports presented at the European Society of Retina Specialists (EURETINA) 2026 described how a concert laser show revealed a hidden vascular condition, ocular findings signaled cancer recurrence, and a possible link between eating disorders and retinal hemorrhage.
Concert Laser Triggers Discovery of Hidden Eye Condition
Exposure to laser light displays may destabilize polypoidal lesions and cause submacular hemorrhage disproportionate to the expected photic injury, according to Yaren Guven and Fatma Sümer, with the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University in Rize, Turkey.
The Patient
- A 32-year-old woman developed acute central vision loss with best-corrected visual acuity reduced to counting fingers at 2 meters, 2 days after exposure to a high-powered concert laser.
- Fundus examination showed dense subfoveal hemorrhage. Spectral-domain OCT confirmed thick hyperreflective submacular collection.
- Indocyanine green angiography revealed a branching vascular network with terminal polypoidal dilation temporal to the fovea consistent with polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Enhanced depth imaging OCT showed a pachychoroid phenotype with sharp-peaked pigment epithelial detachment.
- Combined pars plana vitrectomy with subretinal tissue plasminogen activator displacement, anti-VEGF therapy, and photodynamic therapy achieved favorable visual recovery to 20/40 vision.
In Their Own Words
“Typical laser maculopathy causes focal photoreceptor disruption or superficial hemorrhage — massive submacular hemorrhage is exceedingly rare and should raise suspicion of an underlying vascular pathology.”