Total temporary loss of vision after Eylea injection

[Memato30]

I was on avastin for 3 years but it stopped working .I was changed to Eylea last year but have to get a shot every 6 weeks.some shots are painful some aren’t.My shot a few days ago was really bad. As I got to my car I had sudden severe pain and everything went black in that eye total blindness.Went back in and nurse said it’s just the medicine it will clear up so I said this has never happened before she repeated it will clear up . So sat in my car for thirty minutes in horrible pain but it started to ease up ,I began seeing shadows and after another 15 minutes it was back to my normal poor vision .Has anyone else ever had a temporary total loss of vision after Eylea injection

[Koalajane]

I have never had that

[Hidden]

No but it's a possibility after any eye inj regardless of drug due to the potential but temporary rapid rise in intra ocular pressure. That's why they ask you " how many fingers" before they let you go.

However I dont think there should be pain.

I would have expected them to do some checks on you and make you sit in clinic until vision returned ( even with covid restrictions).

Inj should not be painful though many of us find them so. Flag next time and ask for more anaesthetic drops. Also tell your doc what happened with the temp. Loss of vision.

Best wishes going forward.

[Memato30 in reply to Hidden]

I was very surprised that they didnt find it necessary to check what was going on .I have had occ light pain with injections but never this after 40 Avastin shots and 12 eylea .The paim hit as I was leaving the offtce and walking to my car not at the time of the shot and everything went black .Not sure I can make myself do it again .forgive the typing still learning to type without seeing keyboard

[Hidden in reply to Memato30]

I'd monitor your sight carefully and any probs go straight back.

Might be tempted too to ring the clinic and ask someone else if that pain was nothing to worry about. Usually they tell you to call if there's any after pain.

I'm sorry it's thrown you, it must have been scary. But balance that short period of horror against what you might lose ling term if you stop the injections. Sending you a hug x

[Joankelley]

Yes! Total loss of vision has happened to me TWICE ! Is is very frightening.

Each time my vision did return, but it took about 10 minutes.

[Memato30 in reply to Joankelley]

it took my about 45 minuyes to return and yes it was very scary,Was it hard for you to take another shot afterwards ?what did your doctop say about it?

[Joankelley]

I never have any pain after the injections.....I always have a very bloodshot eye that lasts about a week.

[Memato30]

This was after 4 years of shots always given by my doctor .The pain was different this time but it was really the total loss of vision that was most upsetting

[IvyRose2]

Hi, I have experienced loss of vision immediately after injection, but it’s always returned and near on back to normal the day after. I have been on Eyelea for over 2 yrs after lucentis for 1, the good news is my eye is now dry, keep fingers crossed. My left eye dry for3 yrsnow after 2yrs injections. I eat for my eyes and take Macushield gold. Lots of extra walking during lockdown and fresh veg. Try not to worry and good luck for you forthefuture.

[Retired130]

Yes, but after an Avastin injection by an incompetent Retina Specialist. I had an Avastin shot from a doctor that instantaneously destroyed my color vision & my reading vision as well as sent me to the floor with traumatic pain. I walked into the office seeing color & being able to read. I walked out with only grey vision & total loss of reading ability. My husband had to almost carry me out of the office. Next day I called because of the severe pain & was seen, but was told everything looked ok & things would get better.

Well, the trauma was so severe my body started to shut down. Went to emergency room 2 days later & tests showed my organs were shutting down. Emergency room sent me to an Oncologist. Blood work showed I was slowly dying, but no reason could be found. Was getting blood work twice a week for 3 weeks and each time my results were getting worse & it looked like my body was slowly dying. Oncologist even did a bone marrow draw to try to find what was causing it.

Finally, after almost 4 weeks, tests showed my body was very slowly starting to return to normal. Took about 2 more weeks for test results to get close to normal. Doctors feel the severe trauma of the very painful eye shot caused my body to shut down.

Never went to that doctor again. It has been 3 years since that day. I have had Avastin shots & was then switched to Eylea when the Avastin stopped working, just like you. No problems with new doctor for 3 years. My color vision & reading vision has never returned. They have not even improved even a tiny bit. Whatever that doctor did when giving me the shot, I curse him every day as I can no longer read unless I use a strong magnifying glass reading one to 3 words at a time. I did & still do wear bifold glasses and have my vision script checked every year, but there is no improvement so I am told there is no need for a new script. I live in the USA in Pennsylvania & I have been told by a few lawyers that it is almost impossible to win a lawsuit against a doctor in Pennsylvania, but I tell everyone I can not to go to the Retina Specialist that did this to me.

So, in conclusion, the skill of the person giving the shot determines what happens to your vision after the shot. We patients are at the mercy of the skill factor of the person administering the shot.

[Joankelley]

Yes, I have had the same thing happen to me TWICE! I had total blindness in the injected eye, but no pain......each time it took about 15 minutes for everything to return to normal. It is a very frightening experience, but I think it is common. From what I have read, it could be from air in the needle, a temporary increase in pressure within the eye, or just the Eylea flooding the line of vision. The good news is this is a temporary condition and your sight DOES return to normal.

In March I had my first injection, it was perfect, no pain, no temporary blindness. In the following months, I have had the black blobs, never have had pain, have had a very bloodshot eye, but that cleared up in a week.

My vision for reading is perfect, but MD has diminished my distance vision. I am hoping the Eylea will stabilize my condition, and my distance vision will not get worse than it is.

[3furryfiends]

yes ! I had an eyelea injection in November and I had serious problems-my eye wouldn't stop watering and I lost my sight for a few seconds-everything went white in my injected right eye. I then became hyper sensitive to light. The pain was awful. I was terrified. I found putting my eye drops in the freezer and then flooding the eye with the bottles of drops helped a little. The eye hospital were no real help-the eye emergency dept closed at 8pm- The next day I went to the emergency dept -for nearly 8 hours -to be told that I had several scratches on my cornea caused by the eye clamp used by the nurse and

it was an acceptable risk. When I went to my next appointment I was told off for attending the emergency dept!! Since this episode I have developed an intolerance to the iodine and I have to have extra strong drops before the injection. They wouldn't do the december injection

[Nobe]

Yes, I have. This occurred almost immediately after the Eylea injection, earlier this year. It was rectified by the doctor, who pierced the eye to release the pressure. I understand that this temporary blindness is not uncommon. I had no pain.

[thom3patty]

I have severe pain after eyelea injection but not immediately it is about 5 minutes after and lasts for about 45-60 minutes injections do not hurt it is the aftermath I also get extra numbing and a heavy wash after each injection after reading on here some people get numbing drops when completing done with injection I asked my dr if I could last show they did give me when I was done difference like night and day my eye vision is usually is very blurry for that whole day like I couldn’t read anything if my good eye was closed it’s grayish blur good luck to you

[Zoey2020]

Yes...it happened to me yesterday immediacy following the injection. The dr told me it happens in about 10% of patients. He kept putting drops to lower the pressure and it went away in approx 10-15 minutes. Very scary

[Bob181]

Hello, I had this with my 6th injection last Wednesday. Vision went immediately black but did come back reasonably quickly. The pressure in my eye had gone up. My 3rd injection was horrifically painful as the anaesthetic didn’t work and since then I hyperventilate every time. I was wondering if you have carried on with the injections and how have they been since this happened? I find the whole experience so difficult and my vision hasn’t improved. In fact I have so many floaters now it’s like being in a black snowstorm. Luckily for me it’s only one eye that is affected. Best wishes.

[AnitaMarie in reply to Bob181]

Bob181,

I am going into my fourth year of Lunesta shots in both eyes every eight weeks. I don't know where you live, but do you have a choice of who gives you the shot? I am in the US and go to a Vitreoretinal Disease Specialist and his nurse puts an anesthetic gel in my eye first, then an anesthetic drop. I literally asked the doctor in the beginning for more drops, so the nurse will put about four or five drops in every couple of minutes before the shot. Most of the time, it doesn't hurt at all! Also, I will tell you that the shot may( rarely) hit a blood vessel. It may look bad for a few days but will go away. I have had floaters for years, but they eventually go away, as well. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Good luck!

[Bob181 in reply to AnitaMarie]

I’m in the UK so only get drops. They do give me extra but I can’t help panicking. I have one more to go before I get assessed and they’ll decide how to proceed from here.

[Memato30 in reply to Bob181]

an update on my original post:I was sent for carotid ultrasound to make sure there was no obstruction of bloodflow to my eyes .it turned out normal. per my doctor temporary loss of vision occ, occurs due to sudden increase in pressure but happens immediately after the injection and is very brief .he does not believe an increase in pressure caused it since almost ten minutes had passed since my shot and because of length of time it lasted .He was very direct in saying he did not know what caused it .My vision has faded quite rapidly since with a gray film obscuring it my doctor continues to look for answers i will update if anything is found

[Memato30 in reply to Memato30]

an update after my last eylea shot my vision went immediately black with terrible indescribable pain .my doctor cheked my eye pressure and it was 79 .normally mine is 16-18.even aas he treated it it took 20 minutes for it to goe down to the 20s and the pain to easee up.He said it was acute angle closure glacoma an unusal result of long term injection and that it could occur again ,,my vision decreases every time this happens and my doctor says if it happens and they cant get the pressure down i will permantly loss sight in that eye i have been getting injections for many yrears and have made the decision to stop treatment to that eye .i know i will lose vision in that eye but can no longer face the pain and fear of the injection .has any one else made the decision to stop treatment if so i would like to hear your story

[Hidden in reply to Memato30]

So sorry to hear you've had to make this difficult decision. Sending you a hug XHopefully one of the new treatments will become available for you before any further permanent damage. Best of luck.

[edelros53 in reply to Memato30]

hi, i have wet MD (PCV subtype ) in both eyes.. Avastin injections for 7 years in right and 1 year in left. Yes i noticed that everytime I experienced sudden blackening of vision after injection I noticed my eye sight became worse. I had a microparticle floater as well from avastin in my left eye. I had large scotomas or blind spot in both eyes and vision is not getting any better in fact it just gets worse. I am on 4 weeks between shots and the longest i had was 10 weeks which did not last long. I am begining to decide to stop injections primarily because of so many complications and I was hoping for some benefits that I have not seen yet. I am trying to research on long term side effects of anti vegf like causing permanent retinal/macular/choroid structure changes that is impacting our vision than actually making it stable or improved. I am trying to be positive and hopeful but at the same time practical and realistic about this situation. Like you I wanted to know who out there have stopped and if its true what the doctors says it will get worse without treatment..(but could it get worse with treatment too?- nothing is certain, i hope there is study comparing 2 patients with same degree of MD one without treatment and one with treatment and what was the outcome after 10 years.

[Memato30 in reply to edelros53]

it has now been close to 1 year since my last injection i have had no further decline in my vision . it is no better but also no worse i am glad i made the choice to stop treatment .it was the right choice for me

[Beakerbird in reply to Memato30]

HiBoth of my eyes progressed to Advanced MD after having a diagnosis of dry MD for about 6 years now. I have been doing injections of avastin in my left eye every 4 weeks for 10 months and have had moderate pain and discomfort that normally lasts about 12 hours and gradually the second day following the injection resolved But yesterday following my most recent injection I had immediate severe pain in my eye and normally my doctor has me hold a tissue over my eye lid with gentle pressure on the eye for about 30 seconds following the injection at which point he leaves the room and the nurse checks how I am doing before I leave Well when I pulled the tissue off my eye I immediately realized I had no sight in the eye. My doctor had never warned me that could happen and I have to say I nearly panicked. The nurse informed me that this happens some times but did not explain anything to me but told me to gently massage my eye and my sight would return. It took 25 minutes of massaging my eye and the vision slowly began to come back. It truly scared the life out of me. I really never wanted to try the injections in the first place because they didn’t slow the progression of the disease for my mother and she eventually lost her center vision in both eyes. Just from reading many of the comments posted and sharing them with my husband we have discussed it and I have made the decision to discontinue the injections for my eyes. I am more than 24 hours past the injection and still have moderate to severe pain in my eye as well as a throbbing headache on that side of my head which has not lessened since the injection. I also have noticed a significant decrease in my visual acuity since the injection and now with my prescription eye glasses which allowed me to read before I am unable to clearly see with them and cannot read anything when I close the opposite eye where normally I have been able to read clearly with either eye using my eye glasses. My thoughts at this point are I would rather gradually lose my center vision than potentially lose all my sight in the time it takes to snap my fingers with an injection taking my sight permanently. I am going to see my doctor and monitor my eyes and I have a ton of questions for him for my next visit but the experience has been extremely traumatic and I just don’t feel I could go through another round of even that 25 minutes of temporary sight loss and this persistent horrible pain and headache again. So I have decided no more injections and while I still have my sight such as it is I am going to prepare as best as I can for the gradual eventual loss of my center vision. Best to all and thank you for the honest and candid posts that let me know that (unfortunately) I am not alone in this battle.

[Bob181]

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I am sorry your vision has deteriorated. I hope you get some answers soon.

[billytee2021]

I was changed to Eyelea from Avastin almost a year ago. I have never had a 'pboblem' with the exception of some discomfort with the injection at times. The last appointment 'something' happened. The doctor 'walked me' to the front desk for my co-pay and left and within less than a minute I realized that I was totally blind in my left eye (no pain, just discomfort from the injection). I let everyone know about it...and the 'nurse' who originally saw me and "prepped" took me back to the 'patient waiting room', gave me a 'pill' "...to help bring the eye pressure down, and then I want you to sit here for thirty minutes.". I presumed that she would get my doctor. Both doctors came in to 'get patients' and neither of them addressed me or the issue. It took about twenty minutes or more but finally the blackness gave way to blurred grey and then my sight started to slowly return. And I was finally told, again by the nurse, that I could go, not even using the "how many fingers" method (she had originally told me "This sometimes happens", not once but two or three times. I had to drive close to ten miles but thankfully the vision wasn't blurred and I managed to get home. However the eye did not clear up until the next day. I have diabetic macular degeneration and it was a scary moment indeed. I have my next appointment tomorrow and I am going in with a BUNCH of questions, you can bet.

[Rn16]

I had this happen to me today and it was really scary. My reaction was not as bad as yours but i did become totally blinded in 1 eye which was quite unnerving. I did tell the provider immediately and he apologized for not warning me and said it would get better quickly. It took about 10-15 minutes. I refused to leave until it cleared. This was my 3rd eye injection. I hope you are doing well

[Tedly]

Memato30, So sorry to hear about your bad experience. I get Eylea injections in my left eye usually without incident. My next shot will be my 15th. A few appointments ago I did go totally black in my eye for about 15 minutes. It freaked me out, but there was no pain involved. After it resolved itself I had my vision back. The doctor said it was caused by temporary high pressure in that eye due to the injection. It can sometimes happen he said.

The good news is, my injections are scheduled at 8 weeks apart instead of 4-6 weeks apart so the medicine is working, so hang in there!

All the best,

Tedly