ABSTRACT
Purpose : 10% of COVID patients have eye symptoms1 . Conjunctivitis is the most reported ocular symptom, being reported in 88.8% of all pts with eye symptoms1 . Literature search for SARS-CoV-2 presence in the conjunctiva of COVID patients with conjunctivitis. Methods : Review of articles dated 2020-2021 for conjunctival swabs in COVID-19 positive conjunctivitis patients using search terms: “COVID conjunctival swabs,” “COVID conjunctivitis,” and “COVID and eyes”. Search was done on Google Scholar and PubMed. Cases were excluded if patients did not have conjunctivitis or if a positive conjunctival swab was found in a patient with no clinical or lab-confirmed COVID diagnosis. Results : 27 articles published February 2020-December 2021 were found with 223 conjunctivitis patients. We found that conjunctival swabs tested for SARS-CoV-2 using RT-PCR returned positive 54.4% of the time in COVID-19 patients with conjunctivitis. We also found that 18 patients with no conjunctivitis tested positive on conjunctival swabs. Conclusions : Further research is needed to study the pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 in the eyes and its presence on the ocular surface. As we begin our third year of the pandemic, we expect more case reports and clinical studies on COVID conjunctivitis.