Dendritic ulcer leading to impaired vision in a young man

Case presentation

A simple problem?

A 23-year-old man presented to his GP with an irritated right eye. The irritation had begun after he visited a nightclub three days earlier, with the eye being slightly watery and photophobic since. He thought that he might have got cigarette smoke in his eye when he was at the club. He said his vision was a little blurry, which he believed to be due to the watering eye, and that he needed to wear sunglasses outdoors because sunlight particularly irritated the eye. He had no personal or family history of eye disease.