A common in-office procedure is an eye injection for treatment of various eye conditions, such as wet macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy or vein occlusion.  

It is normal to be anxious prior to your first eye injection but knowing what to expect may alleviate some anxiety.  

Your eye will be numbed with topical anesthetic drops. Usually, a cotton-tipped applicator soaked in anesthetic will be held against the white part of the eye to numb it.  Sometimes, a thick gel may also be used for numbing. Once the eye is numbed, it will then be cleaned and a small instrument will be used to hold the eye open. During the actual injection, some patients feel pressure while others may feel a quick sting. Each person will have a different experience and each injection will be different.

The medicine is injected into the white part of the eye. Sometimes a blood vessel may be encountered during the injection and you may notice a little redness on the outside of the eye. This is...

Erectile Dysfunction (ED) drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra have been implicated as possibly causing an increased incidence in a serious eye disease called Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuropathy (AION).

In 2005 the FDA received 43 post-marketing reports of sudden vision loss attributed to AION in patients taking ED medications. There was also a report in the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology that identified seven patients who had AION within 36 hours of their last use of an ED drug. These reports caused the FDA to issue the following drug safety alert to physicians:

Physicians should:

• Advise patients to stop use of all PDE-5 inhibitors and seek medical attention in the event of a sudden loss of vision in one or both eyes. Such an event may be a sign of non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), a cause of decreased vision, which can result in permanent loss of vision.
• Discuss with patients the increased risk of NAION in individuals who have already...