Strange filler appears causing blindness, antidote injection is ineffective

(Dan Tri) - After getting filler injections to remove forehead wrinkles at a "familiar spa", a 45-year-old male patient fell into an emergency situation because he lost vision in his left eye. A 13-year-old girl also suffered complications because her friend persuaded her to get the injections.

"Acquaintance spa", male patient blind, 13 year old girl with complications

On May 29, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital informed that it had just received and treated a 45-year-old male patient who had completely lost vision in his left eye after being injected with a new generation of filler to remove forehead wrinkles at a private spa.

Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha, Head of the Department of Maxillofacial - Plastic - Cosmetic Surgery, said that the male patient was hospitalized in a critical condition and could have lost his vision completely if not intervened quickly.

Associate Professor Ha assesses the patient's condition (Photo: My My).

The patient said he went to get filler injections to reduce forehead wrinkles at a spa recommended by an acquaintance.

"When I went to the spa, the person who performed the injection told me that "subcutaneous injection is very simple". Trusting someone I knew who had done it and recommended it, I agreed to get a filler injection to rejuvenate (remove wrinkles) my forehead.

However, after only 2-3 injections, I had severe pain in my forehead, my left eye quickly blurred, then lost vision, so I immediately asked to stop the injection and went to the emergency room," the male patient shared.

The patient's eyes no longer respond to light (Photo: My My).

Associate Professor Ha said that as soon as the patient was admitted, the doctor activated the interdisciplinary emergency procedure, and the hospital invited experts from the Central Eye Hospital to coordinate the consultation. The results determined that the patient had central retinal artery occlusion in the left eye - a serious complication due to incorrect filler injection technique.

Patients are actively treated with vasodilators, anti-inflammatory drugs, anti-thrombotic drugs and specialized eye interventions.

Shortly after the doctors injected the antidote, the patient's vision showed signs of improvement and he was able to see light.

However, the recovery was short-lived, and in the following hours, the patient's vision did not improve and continued to deteriorate severely, despite doctors' efforts to intervene for many hours. Up to now, the possibility of restoring vision is almost very difficult.

"But thanks to timely treatment, the patient's eyes retained their eye movement function and the levator muscle functioned normally, the skin and muscles around the eyeball recovered almost normally, without much impact on the patient's aesthetics or ability to integrate into society," Associate Professor Ha said.

Sharing on the sidelines of the National Cosmetic Dermatology Conference recently held in Phu Quoc, Dr. Nguyen Hong Son, Head of the Department of Cosmetic Surgery and Rehabilitation, Central Dermatology Hospital, said that he received 2 cases of patients who both had complications due to filler injections at an acquaintance's spa for beauty purposes.

Especially the case of a 13-year-old girl who, after hearing her friend introduce her to a crash course in filler injection, agreed to let her friend inject her for beauty purposes.

Immediately after the injection, the girl developed a serious abscess and had to be hospitalized. However, after only one day in the hospital, the patient was lured and lured to an outside facility for treatment.

Extremely dangerous with filler injection complications

According to Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha, the type of filler used for the male patient is a slow-dissolving filler mixture that combines two types of filler, one type that can have a dissolving injectable antidote (hyaluronic acid), and one type that does not have an injectable antidote.

Therefore, when an accident or complication occurs, the usual antidote injection only dissolves the soluble filler, while the filler without the antidote remains and causes incurable complications.

"This is one of the serious and rare complications of filler injections, which can lead to permanent and irreversible blindness due to the change in the filler's composition, combined with a new type of filler," Associate Professor Ha warned.

Meanwhile, people who perform injections and get injections at spas mistakenly believe that these are safe products that do not cause blood clots, so they can be injected in all areas of the body.

"The forehead, bridge of the nose, and around the eyes are areas where the blood vessels are directly connected to the eye's artery. Incorrect filler injection technique, using too much force, or using the wrong type of filler can cause the filler to penetrate the blood vessels, causing blockage of the retina, blood vessels for muscles, fat, and tissues around the eyeball...

This is an alarming complication, causing extremely serious consequences, and may not be reversible if treated slowly," Associate Professor Nguyen Hong Ha said.

Sharing this view, Dr. Nguyen Hong Son said: "Injecting filler incorrectly can cause embolism, infection, skin necrosis, and even threaten life. In particular, patients with complications do not know what product they are injected with, which is very dangerous."

Dr. Son cited the case of a young female patient who had her jaws slimmed down with botulinum toxin at a spa and had complications and had to go to the Central Dermatology Institute for examination.

The patient did not have a picture of the medicine box, did not know what he was injected with, only heard the spa say it was botulinum toxin injection. However, the clinical picture and complications were consistent with filler injection.

The patient said she got the injection at a very cheap cost, about 2 million. Meanwhile, if the type of injection was the one the spa said it was injecting, the cost of the box of medicine alone would have been 5-6 million. This shows that there is no guarantee that the patient will get the type of injection that the spa advertised.

Experts recommend:

Only inject fillers at licensed hospitals and cosmetic clinics.

The person performing the procedure must be a doctor with a certificate to practice cosmetic surgery.

Never self-inject at home or go to unqualified facilities.

If there are unusual signs such as swelling, pain, blurred vision, difficulty breathing... go to the hospital immediately.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/xuat-hien-loai-filler-la-gay-mu-mat-tiem-thuoc-giai-khong-hieu-qua-20250529100219622.htm