Bilateral central retinal vein occlusion following COVID-19 vaccination: Cause or coincidence?

Abstract

Aim

To report a case of sequential bilateral ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) following the third dose of anti-COVID 19 vaccination.

Methods

Observational case report.

Results

A 73-year-old Caucasian male patient, with no known medical history, complained of sudden vision loss in his right eye (RE) 18 days following the third dose of Pfizer-BioNTech anti-COVID 19 vaccination. Ten days later, he suffered from sudden vision loss in his left eye (LE).

Best-corrected visual acuity was limited to counting fingers at 50cm in both eyes.

Fundus examination of both eyes revealed signs of ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) with diffuse superficial and deep retinal hemorrhages in all four quadrants. Diagnosis was confirmed of fluorescein angiography.

Optical coherent tomography (OCT) showed an ischemic hyperreflectivity and disorganization of the inner retinal layers in both eyes with significantly increased central macular thickness, associated to intraretinal fluid accumulation in LE.

An urgent systemic assessment was requested. A mild hypertension was discovered and the rest of the work up was unremarkable.

Conclusion

To our knowledge, we report the first case of bilateral CRVO in a healthy patient after anti-COVID 19 vaccination. CRVO occurred few days following third shot of vaccine followed by a sequential CRVO in the fellow eye in a patient with recently diagnosed very mild hypertension and no thrombo-embolic risk factors, strongly suggesting a relationship between both events. Nowadays, CRVO should be kept in mind as a potential side effect of Covid-19 vaccination and should be added to the spectrum of their ophthalmic complications.