Embolism in Retinal Circulation After Invasive Cardiovascular Procedures

Abstract

To determine the occurence of embolism in retinal circulation after invasive cardiovascular procedures and the risk of central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO) and branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO). During a 3 month period 153 patients (303 eyes)--101 male/52 female--who had undergone coronarography or stent implantation were examined before and 24 hours after the procedure. Best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was taken, visual field examination was done and fundoscopy was performed. Eyes with the opacities in the anterior segment (corneal leucoma, dense cataracts) were excluded from the study. Prior to invasive procedure none of the patients had embolism in the retinal circulation. Embolism was found in 3 patients (male) who all had hyperlipidemia with normal blood pressure. Two of them had coronarography and one patient had stent implantation. One of the patients had a previous branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) that was treated with photocoagulation. They did not report any symptoms. BCVA was the same before and after the procedure. Two of the emboli were located in the first branch of the central retinal artery and one was located in the branch of cillioretinal artery. All of the emboli were transient after 48 hours. The study showed that invasive cardiovascular procedures do have the risk of developing transient embolism in retinal circulation. However, there have been reports of CRAO and BRAO after diagnostic cardiac procedures, therefore clinicians should be aware of this potential complication.