An unusual complication of anticoagulant therapy: bloody tears

A seventy-two-year-old white male developed bleeding from a right eye subconjunctival hemorrhage. The patient had been taking warfarin and, it was immediately discontinued. Two doses of 15 mgs. each of vitamin K given parentally reduced the prothrombin time, but not the oozing of blood which finally stopped after the administration of fresh frozen plasma. Fortunately, no retrobulbar or intra-ocular bleeding occurred. This complication during the use of anticoagulants has never, to our knowledge, been reported before in the medical literature.