COVID-19 Era: Diagnosis of a Suspicious Lesion in a Telemedicine Consultation

In December 2019, the first report of severe acute respi-ratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-related pneumonia was reported in China. In just a few weeks, the virus spread worldwide, leading to unforeseen conse-quences on every aspect of our daily working and social life, as well as to radical changes in healthcare delivery. A few months later, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Or-ganization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic. During the early stages of the pandemic, most elective healthcare transitioned to virtual consulta-tion using technology such as video or telephone to con-duct visits. In our center, most of consultation were made via video. One such case is presented here.

We invite readers to consider our experience and comment regarding their own experiences with telehealth for ophthal-mologic, as well as other diagnoses during that period.

A 28-year-old woman was seen via telemedicine-con-sultation regarding a 2-month lesion on the right-medi-al-conjunctiva. This patient reported an initial history of bleeding. On examination, she was diagnosed with conjunctival papillomatous lesion in the caruncle and referred for excisional-biopsy. Histopathology revealed conjunctival squamous-papilloma with focal-dysplasia. Due to the risk of malignancy, she was referred for another biopsy, which was benign.

If our patient had been made to wait for evaluation in our clinic, she probably would have arrived with a malig-nant lesion and not just dysplasia. Therefore, this case em-phasizes the importance of telemedicine, especially during challenging times when face-to-face appointments cannot be done — such as during pandemics, or patient disabili-ties, or long distances to travel.

In our experience, telemedicine can… want to read more? Head here: https://doi.org/10.30953/thmt.v7.372