Ocular Vascular Occlusion Following COVID-19 and Travel Vaccinations: A Systematic Review and Exploration of Immuno-Thrombotic Mechanisms
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Ocular vascular occlusion is a rare, vision-threatening emergency. While typically associated with systemic vascular comorbidities, reports have emerged suggesting a temporal link to various vaccinations. This review aims to synthesize the evidence on ocular vascular occlusion following both COVID-19 and non-COVID travel vaccinations to characterize its clinical spectrum and explore shared pathophysiological underpinnings. Methods: A systematic search adhering to PRISMA 2020 guidelines was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest for studies published from January 1st, 2013, to August 1st, 2024. All study designs reporting ocular vascular occlusion temporally associated with COVID-19 or travel immunizations were included. Data on demographics, vaccine type, clinical presentation, and outcomes were extracted. Methodological quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) for observational studies and the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) checklist for case reports. Results: From an initial 1,348 records, 12 studies met the inclusion criteria, encompassing case reports, series, and large database analyses. These studies described ocular vascular occlusion in individuals aged 15 to 86 years. A significant temporal clustering was observed, with the majority of individual cases occurring within seven days post-vaccination. Central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) was the most reported subtype. A large retrospective cohort study reported a more than two-fold increased hazard for retinal occlusion post-vaccination compared to unvaccinated cohorts (HR 2.19, 95% CI 1.85-2.59, p<0.001). Both mRNA and adenoviral vector COVID-19 vaccines, as well as various travel vaccines including Zostavax, Yellow Fever, and Meningococcal B, were implicated. Conclusion: This review characterizes a consistent temporal association between a diverse range of vaccines and subsequent ocular vascular occlusion, suggesting it is a rare but potential adverse event. The clustering of onset times and involvement of different vaccine platforms point towards a common underlying immuno-thrombotic mechanism. These findings highlight the need for clinical vigilance for acute visual changes post-vaccination, while underscoring that the absolute risk remains exceedingly low compared to the clear benefits of vaccination.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.005 | 0.026 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.005 | 0.005 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.009 | 0.008 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".