A Case of Acute Posterior Multifocal Placoid Pigment Epitheliopathy Following Human Papilloma Virus Vaccination

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To report a case of acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy (APMPPE) that developed after human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination. CASE SUMMARY: A 31-year-old woman experienced sudden bilateral blurred vision and paracentral scotomas four days before visiting the hospital. The symptoms occurred two weeks after the second vaccination with quadrivalent HPV vaccine (Gardasil®, MSD Korea, Seoul, Korea), and she had no pain or cold symptoms. At initial visit, the anterior chamber cells were observed, and the anterior vitreous was found to be clear. On fundus examination, multiple placoid yellow-whitish lesions were observed at the posterior pole, and fluorescein angiography showed early hypofluorescence and late hyperfluorescence with staining. Under a diagnosis of bilateral APMPPE, oral corticosteroid was used as treatment for two weeks, after which symptoms were resolved, anterior chamber cells disappeared, and lesions at the posterior pole markedly decreased. After five weeks, multiple hyperreflective areas on the outer retinal layers as well as missing photoreceptor and retinal pigment epithelial layers were almost recovered upon optical coherence tomography. CONCLUSIONS: Non-infectious uveitis such as APMPPE can rarely present after HPV vaccination. Further studies are necessary to understand whether HPV vaccine is a direct cause of uveitis.