Comment on ‘Pink hypopyon caused by Klebsiella pneumonia’

Sir,

We read with great interest the case reported by Chao AN et al¹ describing the formation of pink hypopyon in endogenous endophthalmitis caused by Klebsiella pneumonia. We were curious about the cause of pink hypopyon as Klebsiella pneumonia per se does not contain any pigment. The authors speculated that pink hypopyon is because of extensive necrosis and haemorrhage caused by this microorganism.¹ However, the photomicrograph of aqueous aspirate (Figure 1) does not show intact red blood cells (RBCs) to support their postulation. Is it possible that the RBCs had undergone lysis before fixation? Therefore, the pink colour of hypopyon in this case is probably due to an admixture of hypopyon and RBCs, which is not truly specific and may be seen in patients with severe uveitis of other aetiologies.^{2, 3}

Figure 1

Photomicrograph of aqueous aspirate.