Update on Avoiding and Treating Blindness From Fillers: A Recent Review of the World Literature

Sudden loss of vision secondary to filler treatments is a rare but catastrophic complication.

The aim of this study was to update the published cases of blindness after filler injection that have occurred since we published our review of 98 cases in 2015, and to discuss prevention and management strategies.

A literature review was performed to identify all cases of visual complications caused by filler injection identified between January 2015 and September 2018.

Forty-eight new published cases of partial or complete vision loss after filler injection were identified. The sites that were highest risk were the nasal region (56.3%), glabella (27.1%), forehead (18.8%), and nasolabial fold (14.6%). Hyaluronic acid filler was the cause of this complication in 81.3% of cases. Vision loss, pain, ophthalmoplegia, and ptosis were the most common reported symptoms. Skin changes were seen in 43.8% of cases and central nervous system complications were seen in 18.8% of cases. Ten cases (20.8%) experienced complete recovery of vision, whereas 8 cases (16.7%) reported only partial recovery. Management strategies varied greatly and there were no treatments that were shown to be consistently successful.

Although the risk of blindness from fillers is rare, practitioners who inject filler should have a thorough knowledge of this complication including prevention and management strategies.