STM Article Repository

Central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) is caused by the formation of a thrombus in the central retinal vein, and constitutes an extreme diagnostic and therapeutic emergency due to its visual prognosis. The most frequent cause of CRVO is related to cardiovascular risk factors, although neoplasia is a very rare cause of CRVO. A few cases of CRVO secondary to cancer have been reported in the literature, the imputability of malignant pathology may be explained by the systemic procoagulant state observed during the latter.

We report the case of a patient who suddenly presented with CRVO and whose etiological work-up was in favor of metastatic rectal adenocarcinoma. This observation demonstrates the importance of systematically searching for a neoplastic source in any thrombosis that is atypical, even if it is distant from the thrombus.