Swati Sinkar, David Greer, Geoffrey Lam

Purpose: Indigenous people often present to the clinicians with a ‘bung eye’ which literally means ‘bad eye’.  We would like to discuss a case of a 3-year-old indigenous boy who presented to a tertiary paediatric hospital in Western Australia with a ‘bung eye’ and was found to have a hypopyon.

Method: Case report

Results: All examinations and investigations were unremarkable. Multiple insect bite marks were noted on legs.

Conclusion: To our knowledge, hypopyon following a history of insect bite in indigenous population has never been described in literature

Aetiology of hypopyon in children can vary from infective causes like keratitis and endogenous endophthalmitis to neoplastic causes like retinoblastoma and leukaemia. Their management is specifically targeted according to aetiology.

Indigenous health is unique in Australia and one needs to be wary of different pathologies. It is of paramount importance to have a systematic approach and perform thorough investigations before making a diagnosis, especially in rare and unusual presentation.