Non-Arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Wen-Yun Lin; Jin-Jhe Wang; Chien-Hsiung Lai

doi:10.3390/vaccines10060931

Non-Arteritic Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Vaccines (Basel). 2022 Jun 10;10(6):931. doi: 10.3390/vaccines10060931.

Authors

Wen-Yun Lin^{1

2}, Jin-Jhe Wang², Chien-Hsiung Lai^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.
² Department of Ophthalmology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi 61363, Taiwan.
³ Department of Nursing, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Chiayi 61363, Taiwan.
⁴ School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 33302, Taiwan.

Abstract

People are advised to receive a vaccine booster as the Delta and Omicron variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerge, but various adverse ocular reactions after vaccination have been reported. NAION following COVID-19 vaccination appears extremely rarely. Here, we report a case of a 61-year-old female with sudden painless blurred vision developing NAION after receiving ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (AstraZeneca) vaccination and provide an in-depth explanation of the possible mechanisms regarding the hypercoagulable state after vaccination. Our report adds to the literature on potential adverse ocular effects after COVID-19 vaccination, and we as ophthalmologists recommend that clinicians should increase awareness of this possible ocular complication when evaluating patients with sudden visual disturbance with a recent history of vaccination.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination; non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy; ocular adverse reaction.

Publication types

Case Reports

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.