The end of the year is approaching, and some of the things everyone looks forward to, are year-end sales. Every retailer is offering jaw dropping discounts to clear off their stock and encourage shoppers to spend. You scroll through Instagram to get inspiration on what to wear for the holiday season and you find yourself somewhat drawn to a before-and-after picture of someone who’s had their face enhanced with fillers. You click on the picture and you see the hashtags, “#nosefillers, #lipfillers and #chinfillers.” Excited, you click on the user profile to see where this person had their fillers done, but strangely, the user profile does not look like the official account of a legitimate clinic. So you send a direct message to enquire, and you are told that there is a special year-end offer on fillers, at only RM400 for the nose, lips and chin! A fraction of the price that licensed aesthetic clinics would charge! WHAT COULD POSSIBLE GO WRONG, you think. “It’s just fillers”! “Just” a few tiny injections, and you’ll look ravishing at your year-end dinner with friends, you tell yourself.
Stop right there.
Fillers are expensive for a reason. The WORST thing that could possibly happen to you, if you decide to have your fillers done by an unlicensed and untrained person without any medical background - is permanent blindness. You read that right. Irreversible and permanent loss of vision in your eyes.
How can blindness possibly happen? How can you go blind when it is not the eyes that are being injected with fillers?
Up to February 2019, there has been a total count of 146 cases of total vision loss related to filler injection throughout the world. It is rare, but is without a doubt, a major catastrophic and life changing complication.
Impairment or loss of vision (be it temporary or permanent) takes place when the central retinal artery is occluded, or blocked by filler particles. This happens when the tip of the needle accidentally punctures the vessel, causing the filler to injected into the vessel (instead of the intended location), and when too much pressure is applied to the plunger of the syringe while injecting, the arterial pressure can be overwhelmed, causing retrograde movement of the filler into the proximal arterial network. Eventual embolization of the central retinal artery will deprive the retina of oxygen, leading to blindness. The sites that are of the highest risk are the nasal region, glabella, forehead and nasolabial fold, but the fact is that any region of the face is at risk for this complication!
Visual loss following embolization usually occurs within SECONDS of filler injection, but it has also been reported to occur up to 7 hours post injection. Once the retinal artery has been occluded, there is a window of 60-90 minutes before blindness is completely IRREVERSIBLE.
What are the signs and symptoms of this devastating complication?
Pain(ocular, facial or headache)
Nausea
Vision loss
Paralysis or weakness of ocular muscle
Ptosis
Posterior displacement of the eye
Misalignment the eyes when looking at an object
Corneal edema
Pupillary abnormality
Iris atrophy
Anterior chamber inflammation
Mottled, reticulated vascular pattern of the skin
Cerebral infarct – STROKE!
What can be done within that precious time frame of 60-90 minutes?
Reduction of intraocular pressure (administration of a medication called Timolol into the affected eye, and rebreathing into a paper bag to increase carbon dioxide concentrations in the blood, causing retinal arteries to dilate and possibly help dislodge the clot).
Administering Aspirin to prevent blood clotting.
Massaging the eyes to dislodge the embolus.
Administering hyaluronidase, an enzyme to degrade the filler, into the area behind the globe of the eye.
Save yourself the unnecessary worries of encountering this devastating complication by only seeking filler treatments from licensed and experienced doctors. It is not worth risking your eyesight for a cheap bargain.
Dr.Arzhealza R.
Anna Hoo Clinic
