A Case of Transient Visual Field Defect following Administration of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To report a case of transient visual field (VF) defect after coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) vaccination.

Case Report

A 38-year-old Caucasian, otherwise healthy female patient, presented with a complaint of vision loss in the outer quadrant in her left eye after the second dose of Pfizer®-BioNTech™ COVID-19 vaccine. The Snellen visual acuity was 20/20 in both eyes. She did not have relative afferent pupillary defect nor disturbance of color vision. Her intraocular pressures, slit lamp and fundus examinations were normal. In the VF test, a temporal hemifield defect in the left eye and a nasal peripheral VF defect in the right eye were detected. Other imaging characteristics and neurological examination were normal. She was followed without any treatment. One week later, the patient was re-evaluated and complete resolution of the VF defect was observed.

Conclusion

Clinicians should be aware that patients can experience transient visual symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• Pfizer-BionTech
• vaccine
• visual field defect
• visual impairment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.