[A case of ophthalmic artery occlusion following injection of hyaluronic acid into the glabellar area].

PURPOSE: We report a case of unilateral blindness due to ophthalmic artery occlusion following injection of hyaluronic acid into the glabellar area for facial soft-tissue augmentation.

CASE: A 20-year old woman underwent injection of hyaluronic acid into the glabellar area at an aesthetic plastic clinic. Immediately after injection, she suffered nausea, pain, paralysis of limbs and visual loss in her right eye. Hyaluronidase was instanly injected into the same place, but these symptoms did not improve. She was transferred to our hospital's emergency department. At the first examination, she had no light perception in the right eye and her right pupil was dilated. The fundus examination revealed right central artery occlusion. No significant findings were detected in her head. Eye ball massage, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and drip infusion of urokinase were conducted, but no improvement resulted. Fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography showed no filling of the right retinal and choroidal arteries. Electroretinogram was completely disappeared. Magnetic resonance angiography could not reveal the obstruction point of the ophthalmic artery.

CONCLUSION: Ophthalmic artery occlusion was believed to have occured after injection of hyaluronic acid into the glabellar area.