Professional association of ophthalmologists in Germany. registered association
Dusseldorf (ots)
When the first vaccinations against SARS COV2 were approved around two years ago, reports of possible side effects soon followed, which were widely discussed in the media and in society. There were reports of an increased risk of sinus vein thrombosis after vaccination with the vaccine from the manufacturer AstraZeneca, which is no longer used in Germany. Sinus vein thrombosis is a rare form of stroke in which blood clots block the vessels that drain blood from the brain. The result is swelling and bleeding in the brain. There were also individual reports of eye diseases after a vaccination, here too the focus was on vascular occlusions – in particular anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) and vascular occlusions in the retina of the eye.
In order to find out whether there is a noticeable accumulation of such diseases and whether there is a causal connection between the vaccination and the disease, the Retinological Society launched a survey in 50 German centers (1).
The survey takes a number of aspects into account:
- What type was the vascular occlusion?
- How much time elapsed between the event and the diagnosis (occlusion age)?
- How long before the event were the sick people vaccinated against SARS COV2?
- Which vaccine was used?
- Did you have any previous illnesses (including a corona infection)?
72 percent of the centers asked took part in the survey and sent in data on 515 cases of illness. The patients were on average 67.4 years old. A good three quarters of the cases were examined in the eye clinic within two weeks of the vascular occlusion. Known pre-existing conditions included high blood pressure (64.7 percent), carotid stenosis (narrowing of the carotid artery, 18.5 percent), diabetes mellitus (18.4 percent), atrial fibrillation (11.5 percent), glaucoma (10.5 percent) and a previous corona infection (1.8 percent).
76.9 percent of the patients were vaccinated against SARS COV2. In more than a quarter of the cases, the vaccination was more than six weeks before the vascular occlusion, in almost ten percent it was four to six weeks, and in almost 20 percent two to four weeks and 16.4 percent less than two weeks. A conspicuous accumulation over time could not be determined. Overall, there was no evidence that vaccination increases the risk of retinal vascular occlusion.
A comparative analysis of the survey results with data from the Gutenberg Health Study also allows this conclusion. With 15,000 people, this study is one of the largest local health studies in the world. Since April 2007, the participants have been regularly examined for their state of health. The focus is on cardiovascular health, but cancer, eye diseases and diseases of the immune system, metabolism and the psyche are also recorded. A retrospective analysis of the data did not reveal a noticeable increase in cases of retinal vascular occlusion after SARS COV2 vaccination.
A recent Japanese publication (2) also confirms the assumption that the SARS COV2 vaccination does not cause any harmful side effects on the eyes. For this study, data on medical services and vaccinations from a large Japanese city were evaluated and it was checked whether a conspicuous number of cases of uveitis, scleritis, vascular occlusions and optic nerve inflammation occurred after vaccination with BNT162b2, the vaccine from Biontech/Pfizer. The comparison of almost 100,000 vaccinated with just as many non-vaccinated people suggests that the vaccination does not cause any harmful side effects on the eyes.
Conclusion
A survey of German eye clinics found no evidence of a noticeable increase in vascular occlusions in the retina of the eye after a SARS COV2 vaccination. These results are supported by a comparative analysis of data from the Gutenberg Health Study, a large local health study with 15,000 participants. A Japanese study also suggests that the vaccination does not cause any damage to the eyes.
Prof. Dr. Nicholas Feltgen
University Eye Clinic Goettingen Robert-Koch-Str. 40
37075 Goettingen
Tel: 0551-39-66789
Fax: 0551-39-66787
Email: [email protected]
Sources:
- Feltgen N, Ach T, Ziemmsen F et al.: Retinal Vascular Occlusion after COVID-19 Vaccination: More Coincidence than Causal Relationship? Data from a Retrospective Multicentre Study,J. clinical Med. 2022, 11(17), 5101; doi:
- Hashimoto Y, Yamana H, Iwagami M, Ono S, Takeuchi Y, Michihata N, Uemura K, Yasunaga H, Aihara M, Kaburaki T. Ocular adverse events after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination: matched cohort and self-controlled case series studies using a large database, Ophthalmology (2022),doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.10.017
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Original content from: Professional association of ophthalmologists in Germany. eV, transmitted by news aktuell
