According to the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Team, 81.1% of the elderly aged 60 or older and 47.5% of adults aged 18 or older recently completed the third vaccination (booster shot). As the vaccination rate increases, questions about "maybe symptoms" after vaccination are also increasing. Many medical consumers who visit ophthalmology are concerned that there will be no adverse effects on eye health after vaccination. However, it is an unprecedented disease and lacks information.
On the 20th, I met with Jeong Jong-jin, a specialist at Kim's Eye Hospital, and asked patients' questions about the effect of vaccination on eye health.
It is virtually safe to perform surgery one day before or after the vaccination date. However, sometimes taking antipyretic painkillers for pain after surgery can affect antibody production, so it is recommended to leave a week apart in preparation for such cases.
Sometimes, treatment is delayed because they are reluctant to visit the hospital itself for fear of infection due to the COVID-19 incident. However, eye diseases in which golden time for treatment is important, such as glaucoma, should be noted because symptoms may worsen if the appropriate time is missed.
After vaccination, there are cases of eye pain and increased intraocular pressure. At the fall academic conference of the Korean Ophthalmological Society held last fall, five cases were reported that acute obstructive glaucoma, a disease that rapidly increases eye pressure after the COVID-19 vaccine. Three of them were announced to have occurred on the day of vaccination.
However, there is no direct evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine increases intraocular pressure yet. If the vaccine causes edema to the waterproof spillway, a passage through which water, which constitutes the eye, is discharged, the possibility of an increase in intraocular pressure can be considered, but the actual causal relationship has not been revealed. If you feel these symptoms after inoculation among glaucoma patients or chronic eye disease patients, you should visit your doctor to check the progress.
According to the U.S. Vaccine Side Effects Reporting System (VAERS), 9,531 out of 240,775,382 Americans experienced blurred vision and 311 experienced impaired vision after the COVID-19 vaccination as of December 18 last year.
As of October 31 last year, 623 suspected cases related to vision loss were reported in Korea, including 385 AstraZeneca cases, 173 Pfizer cases, 38 Moderna cases, and 27 Janssen cases. However, the COVID-19 vaccination response team said that it was reported as an abnormal reaction after the COVID-19 vaccination, and that it does not suggest causality between vaccine abnormal reactions. Since the causal relationship is not exactly revealed, if you feel the difference after inoculation, you should visit the hospital to check if there are any other causes.
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
(Picture from Unsplash)
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