THE PATIENT is a 42-year-old white woman with a history of episodes of hypoglycemia since childhood, during which she becomes irritable and subsequently loses consciousness. She had been diagnosed as having Addison's disease and has been taking cortisone or cortisone derivatives daily for the past five years. In an automobile accident, Oct 3, 1965, she struck the right side of her head on a windshield and sustained a laceration of the scalp which subsequently became infected with Staphylococcus aureus. Shortly after the accident, she noted that her right palpebral fissure was smaller than the left. She also experienced pain in the eye.
When seen on Dec 15, 1965, visual acuity was 20/20 in each eye. The only ocular abnormalities were a concentric contraction of the visual field of the right eye to 15 degrees, and a greyish hemorrhagic lesion in the lower fornix of the right eye. Drops containing polymyxin