Retinal Hemorrhage as a Consequence of Epidural Steroid Injection

Epidural Steroid Injection for Sciatica: An Analysis of 526 Consecutive Cases with Measurements and the Whistle Test

“…Other rare forms such as retinal haemorrhage, myopathy and lipomatosis associated with Cushing's syndrome have also been reported. 1,33,47 The present paper is aimed to present a single operator's experience with measurable parameters (straight leg raising test, spinal flexion and extension, percentage of improvement), which is believed to be uncommon 2,7,39 in the literature 10,15,49 A new test, the Whistle Test, is also described.…”

Valsalva hemorrhagic retinopathy presenting as a rare cause of impaired vision after a general anesthetic—a case report and review of the literature

“…Valsalva hemorrhagic retinopathy has also been reported after common medical and surgical interventions including the following: colonoscopy [15], upper endoscopy [16,17], laparoscopy [4,11], laparoscopic cholecystectomy [5], prostate biopsy [50], dental procedures [18,19], lumbar and caudal epidural injection [6][7][8][9][10]12], a seizure [51], choking and an attempted Heimlich maneuver [52], and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) [53].…”

“…The remaining anesthesia-related VHR cases were associated with epidural injections [6,7,9,8,12]. Although some of these patients also received general anesthetics for these injections, the proposed mechanism for the hemorrhage was increased retinal venous pressure secondary to increased intracranial pressure due to displacement of cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal canal.…”

“…Postoperative visual loss may occur after common interventions and has been previously reported after a number of seemingly benign and common anesthetic-related maneuvers [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19].…”

SPINAL EPIDUROSCOPIC EPIDUROPLASTY (SEE) effectively improved symptoms in patients with failed back surgery syndrome: 3 cases

“…When epidural adhesion contributes to the cause of indefinable pain in FBSS patients, spinal epiduroscopic epiduroplasty is considered for treatment. This procedure is not as invasive as surgical intervention; however, the procedure itself has a risk of creating epidural abscess, epidural hematoma, accidental subdural and/or subarachnoid puncture, headaches, retinal hemorrhage and nerve root injury 20,21) . So far, there has been no report of fatal complications due to SEE.…”