Retinal Hemorrhage after SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 10; no. 23; p. 5705
• Main Authors: Park, Hyo Song, Byun, Yeojue, Byeon, Suk Ho, Kim, Sung Soo, Kim, Yong Joon, Lee, Christopher Seungkyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 05.12.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; BNT162b2; Cardiomyopathy; ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; Clinical medicine; Coronaviruses; Diabetes; Hematology; Hemorrhage; Hepatitis; Hypertension; Macular degeneration; mRNA vaccines; Patients; retinal vein occlusion; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; submacular hemorrhage; vaccine; Germany; retinal vein occlusion; SARS-CoV-2; vaccine; BNT162b2; ChAdOx1 nCoV-19; submacular hemorrhage
• ISSN: 2077-0383; 2077-0383
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm10235705

To report retinal vein occlusion (RVO) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD)-related submacular hemorrhage developing after administration of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, a single-center, retrospective observational case series was conducted. Clinical data including fundus photographs and optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans were reviewed. Twenty-three eyes of 21 patients were included with the median age at symptom presentation being 77 years (range: 51-85 years). Twelve eyes (52.2%) had submacular hemorrhage and 11 (47.8%) had RVO. Twelve patients (60.9%) had been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine (BNT162b2) and 8 with the AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1) vaccine. Sixteen patients (76.2%) experienced ocular disease exacerbation after the first vaccination and 4 (19.0%) after the second vaccination. The median visual acuity (logarithm of the minimal angle of resolution; logMAR) before symptom development was 0.76 (interquartile range: 0.27-1.23); the median logMAR at symptom presentation was 1.40 (interquartile range 0.52-1.70). The median time between vaccination and symptom exacerbation was 2.0 days (interquartile range: 1.0-3.0 days). Five patients (23.8%) underwent tests for hematological abnormalities, including the presence of anti-PF4 antibodies; all were negative. Further studies with larger patient group for evaluation of effect of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination on retinal hemorrhage are necessary.