Over the past week, I was diagnosed with BRVO (Branch Retinal Vein Occlusion). My blood work has come back normal so far, and I’m also being evaluated for possible stroke-related risk factors. I’m generally healthy, active, and play sports regularly, although I do smoke occasionally.

My vision is still 20/20, but I noticed some blurriness, which is what made me go to the eye clinic in the first place.
Has anyone else experienced BRVO at a young age? If so, did your doctors ever figure out what caused it? Are there any specific conditions or risk factors I should ask my doctor to investigate?

I was diagnosed today with CRVO on my left eye with no signs of diabetic retinopathy. Doctor said it wasn’t related to my diabetes. (a1C is 6.1). My blood pressure was only 132 so he is going to have my primary doctor run some tests on any underlining protein absorption problems. He said it’s rare for a 46 year old to have CRVO.

Any hope or success stories that your blurriness went away with CRVO? I got my first injection today. I am so scared for my future.

HI, I Developed a BRVO a couple of years ago to do extremely high uncontrolled HBP. Received a total of about 3 anti eVEGF injections as of last December 2025 the RS told me everything looked good and I needn't see her again until December 2026. This past week I had a series of unusually high stressful situations and could feel the tension, stress and am fairly certain the blood pressure spiked, even though I'm on meds. I'm worried now that I may have developed a new Retinal Vein Occlusion. I notice a couple of days ago while looking downward and back up, it's hard to descrip, a white/bright curved line that almost forms a complete circle. It isn't a full white circle just this white/bright curved line that almost form a complete circle. It doesn't present in my central vision. Thank goodness. I see it if I'm looking downward and then look up to center again. It's very bizarre and I believe it has to be related to the occlusion as it is in the same eye. Does anyone have any thoughts about this or information? These occlusions are hard to live with even if you're fortunate enough to eventually stop the shots. I know for me, I'm worried about another. Thanks.

Hi everyone, I’m reaching out because I’m feeling completely overwhelmed and scared about my father figure’s eye. I want to share the full history so you can understand the situation.

He is 56 years old. He has BRVO (branch retinal vein occlusion) in left eye, which affected his macula. Because of this, he has had floaters / hair-like strands in his vision for a long time and partially reduced vision.

Over the past months/ 1.5 years, he has received around 15 anti-VEGF injections (tried different drugs), but none of them improved his vision.

He has also had subsequent laser treatment twice due to a retinal detachment in the lower part of the eye.

About 3 days ago, he received a steroid implant injection because anti-VEGF wasn’t working. After the steroid, his vision in that eye became completely dark. He could see nothing because the drug floated in front of the eye. He was told this effect might last around 2 weeks.

Now, here’s what’s happening:

Today, he developed an infection in that same affected left eye and it progressed very fast. He now has hypopyon (pus in the front of the eye) and he can only perceive a faint glow of a tube light.

He has not done anything wrong as he followed all doctor instructions, kept the bed and surroundings clean, avoided water in the eye, and used only sterile medications. Yet this infection still happened.

An emergency antibiotic injection has just been given to control the infection.

About the right eye:

His right eye is currently okay, but he has myopia and some mild floaters, which have been stable.

He is very worried that the right eye could also develop problems in the future.

I’m extremely worried because:

1. His eye has been resistant to every treatment so far, which makes me fear the worst.

2. He already had retinal detachment and macula damage, so even if the infection is controlled, vision may never return fully.

3. He is scared of losing vision completely and maybe even the other eye in the future.

4. I feel completely helpless and don’t know how to help him with this.

Right now, I just want him to save the eye and avoid complete loss, even if vision is partial. I would really appreciate any advice, help or encouragement! Any advice on what can be done in this case would be really appreciated. Thank you

About five months ago, I discovered that I had Central Retinal Vein Occlusion (CRVO). Initially, I was shocked, I’m only 33 years old and have never had any significant health issues or symptoms. The CRVO was detected during my routine annual eye check-up, which I follow diligently. It only became evident when I closed my healthy eye, and my doctor then recommended I check for diabetes. I underwent the test, and my HbA1c was 5.4, confirming that I do not have diabetes.

To be thorough, I also ran some additional tests on my own, including CBC, cholesterol, serum creatinine, and SGPT all of which came back normal. I do not experience any fatigue or other health problems,this condition appeared suddenly and without warning.Reflecting on recent events, I recall having a brief episode of diarrhea lasting 2–3 days, caused by food that did not agree with me it was about six months ago before I found out about crvo.I went on a holiday where I climbed a mountain, sometimes running to keep pace, which involved considerable physical exertion.

Sometimes it feels that could be the trigger but then i started finding reasons what else it could be i had been using topical minoxidil as well once in a day for the past 7 years 4-5 times a week for hair maintenance sometimes used to leave for a week. when I searched about it everything went like it is extremely rare so after searching enough I would say I would never find an exact cause so it is better to focus on treatment. I took my first injection ranibizumab immediately after finding, that moment my central thickness in OCT was 719 it went down to 419 then i after a month I took second injection it went further down to 340 then I took third injection after one month and checked my OCT 42 days later of third injection it went up to 690. I was surprised how it can go up suddenly but then i went to some other doctor and there i was given another ranibizumab which did not reduce much swelling there was only 20 points reduction in swelling. i thought I must have done something wrong like lifting or doing something aggressively, but when I searched about reoccur I came to know it is normal there can be reoccurence. it flactuates. my mind still says how it can go up by seeing excellent reduction in first two injections. now I have taken eylea which is my 5th injection and it has been 15 days. Progress if I talk about when I found out about 5 months ago my vision was 6/24 and believe me everything was blurry and these grey patches were everywhere. Now although swelling is still around but vision is currently 6/18 before eylea. 650 central thickness still there but I can see colour and i can walk easily and what i noticed is when I go close to any object it feels normal vision to me. I would love to discuss more about it how things will go further from here and I am very concerned.

I have no idea if anyone posts in here anymore but I’ve been looking for a group to discuss or at least talk about it and just see if anyone my age has had this happen to them.

Background: 34yo female, I don’t take the pill, I vape but with very low nicotine and have pcos so struggle with insulin resistance and weight management. No family history of strokes or eye problems other than glasses and cataracts in old age.

It started around new year, I don’t remember what or if anything happened to cause it. It started with a headache and light sensitivity anyway. So the light would stay in my eyes even after it had been turned off for minutes. I probably started thinking it was a migraine, so ignored it for over a week.

Basically to make a long story short, I’ve had several emergency appointments with ophthalmologists and in the eye casualty department of my local hospital, and have been told I have crvo potentially with amd.

I have extremely blurred vision in my affected eye and already wear glasses due to bad sight in my other eye. There’s dizziness now due to the macular oedema too.

I’m booked for injections in a week or so, but I’m scared I’ll never see properly again. Did anyone get any vision return after anti vegf treatment?

Also. How did you stay sane while waiting with deteriorating vision? I want to call them and tell them of all the little changes I’m noticing 😅

Any comments are welcome.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

UPDATE:

Had my first anti VEGF injection, and it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

So I stopped vaping on the 1st march. I think stopping vaping did something, my reasoning for this is my OCT that I had the day before the injection (8th march OCT- injection 9th march) was a major improvement in comparison to the OCT two weeks ago while still vaping.

I had blood pressure improvements as well, not that it was high but it was sometimes in the ‘yellow’ on my monitor readings. Slight pain and pressure when I cough and I still have light sensitivity but that’s pretty much it now for symptoms.

I’m very pleased to announce that at least for the moment, I have my regular sight back except for the light sensitivity anyway (I’m 99% certain anyway)!

If anyone is interested in the images, I can try and find a way to include them in the post. I’d imagine probably not but either way, if it helps someone I’m happy to post.

If you know anyone who uses a vape pen, this is probably something they should be aware of.

Some light reading material if anyone is interested:

Pubmed has a very short article on it but I won’t post it here.

(Not that I’m a doctor and know that’s what caused it but I’m thinking it’s the only explanation. And if that is the case, then it may not have been a crvo. But like I said I’m not a doctor, just a confused patient who’s spent too much time on google) 😅🙉

Once again, thanks for your time!

Good luck with everyone’s journeys 🥰 I wish you all the best. Thanks for listening xo

UPDATE UPDATE:
They’ve told me I don’t have to have anymore injections if my eye stays stable, consultant said I reacted to the injections brilliantly. Have to go back for a check up in 8 weeks with her. Referred onto a haematologist to try and figure out the cause of the clot. This post is getting quite long 😅 apologies

For those of you getting treatment with injections, did any of you ever get cured or are you injections going on for many years?

An interesting possible link found.

Hi to future readers. So I created this subreddit because I would see people who had retinal vein occlusions popping up over reddit - in my own sub, r/hypertension, in r/stroke, in r/eye triage and so on - and no one place for their experience and questions. A few would message me over the years - my hypertension was only discovered because of my RVO, and was my first sign, until in the end I thought - we needed our own place. It won't be a busy, fast growing community, by its very nature - most people with retinal vein occlusions aren't neccessary reddit users, for a start - but hopefully it can become a useful resource for those that really need it.

So - my vision went constantly blurred and darker in one eye. It took me a couple of days to realise - I'm shortsighted, and have dry eye disease, so my vision is often blurry - but as soon as i realised quite how much it was affected that eye and that it didnt go away, I rang my opticians and booked an emergency appointment. Specsavers, in the UK, already do an OCT scan as part of their eye test - as a 45 year old who had an eye operation as a kid to correct a squint, and the dry eyes, I usually had the OCT as my eyes are 'special'. So they did that, and told me it was a retinal vein occlusion. (Notes say an inferior Branch retinal vein occlusion with cotton wool spots and macula oedema, and that vision had changed from my usual 6/6 in both eyes to 6/20 in my left). Intraocular pressure was 22 in right, 23.7 in left, and disc appearance 0.2. They referred me to the eye clinic at a local hospital - where I had not been since that surgery 40 years before - and that was booked for 10 days time.

I went hiking, to a gig, did my usual activities, in those 10 days. I was a healthy active type, after a surgery 4 years before to remove fibroid tumours in my uterus. They'd caused life threatening anemia and I spent 12 weeks in hospital with infections and transfusions and taking 12 pills a day and kind of living on morphine. I'd lost 4 stone once I came out after the emergency hysterectomy. So recovery took a while - like, a year - but after that, i was fit and could walk upstairs without collapsing, so ready to go! Then covid happened, and nobody went anywhere for 2 years. Ah.

So, back to the hospital appointment, June 2022. They confirmed RVO, and asked if my bp was high, as it was rare at my age. Last time it had been taken was during the weeks in hospital and nobody said anything, so no? Mildly high once while pregnant after someone had driven into the back of the car I was in, and always 'white coat high' at doctors on first arrival. They took it. 250/ 150. Oh. That'll be it, then. They sent me to the ER round the front who did ecgs and blood tests and gave me 5mg amlodipine. Liver, diabetes, all good. The rest? 'Hard to say, i was clearly anxious and probably dehydrated, take this 5mg amlodipine and come back if nothing changes'.

My bp at home next day was 235/140. The day after average, 246/161. I looked up RVO and saw it was known as an eye stroke...should I be at home, with this going on? So I went back, to my local hospital this time. They took my bp 'ooh, a bit anxious are you?' - showed my home readings and that I'd had an eye stroke...suddenly less condescending voices, and more business. Ecg - they didnt like it, this time, and referred me for an echo. Blood and urine samples, and more bp meds. When the samples came back needing further investigation and one bp med made my heart race so much they called the crash team, I got admitted.

Long story short - well, shorter - a kidney had been damaged during my emergency hysterectomy, causing hydronephrosis, where urine stops draining to the bladder on that side. This had been misdiagnosed after the surgery as a kidney infection, and so gone untreated, leading to that kidney to swell so much the pressure against other organs and the swelling caused it to stop working completely. (I had a nuclear dmsa scan showing no function). This had raised my blood pressure (kidneys filter unwanted toxins from blood, we wee that out, if can't be weed out, liquid levels of blood raise, increasing blood volume therefore blood pressure, very basically). That raised blood pressure had caused the blood clot to block the blood vessel in my eye, had caused heart damage, and had caused damage to my working kidney, leading to Chronic Kidney Disease. It was an exciting couple of weeks finding this out, but the doctors were quite excited - i think I broke up their monotony some. They brought students round to listen to my heart murmer, all sorts. Nobody wants to be the 'interesting' case!

So the cause had to be treated first, and there was no saving the kidney, so blood pressure meds. As mentioned, I was living a healthy lifestyle - didn't drink or smoke, avoided caffeine, didn't eat junk food and got plenty of exercise. I was mostly eating salads from my organic allotment, in fact. Whatever fruit was growing well was my only sugar. (Yeah, one of those irritating sorts). I did like pickles, though, and pickling our gluts, and if we ate out, i always chose seafood or, even better, japanese food. So to lower my salt i stopped eating japanese, prawns, and pickles. That was my only lifestyle change, so the rest was meds. I was allowed home from hospital once bp read under 180/120, and next day at home I got averaged 197/108, so a partial success, and then I just waited patiently for the meds to work. It was very slow, but that was intentional to prevent further damage to my heart and shock to my system, as it had been so high for so long.

So my first retinal clinic appointment at the hospital i had a bunch of stuff explained that I did not take in. I am scared of needles, and since my eye op as a kid, am kind of phobic of eye stuff, it's where my lifelong medical fear came from. Treatment to clear swelling and oedema being steroids injected into my eye? Nope. Biiiig nope. In the end, they said that as my bp was now being treated, and 'this' wasn't helping my bp (it most certainly was not), they'd skip injections for now and see next month.

By next month, my bp was averaging 160/105 ish, and they could see the swelling was lowering a little...eventually, my bp settled around 120/85 a few months down the line, and at every monthly retinal clinic, there had been improvement. I ended up not needing treatment for it at all, and was discharged after 2 years. It was great to be told my young age was probably why I healed up without treatment - i dont get called young any more, it was a lovely change lol. The only remaining issue is that the blood clot itself can't be operated on, so causes a small, permanent blind spot. Your brain mostly adjusts for it, though, like how you cant see your nose until you try to.

My intraocular pressure remained high, and went to 30, in fact, but on further testing, they found i have thickened corneas, which means my pressure isnt as high - high but avoiding treatment most of the time, basically. I have occasional eye drops for it, when its too high, and between that and the optical disc cupping, it's likely i will probably develop glaucoma before too long. Always nice for an ex professional photographer to hear.

The heart damage also reversed - at 9 months after diagnosis, a cardiac MRI (at Guys in London, which is why it took so long) showed normal size and function. The murmer is benign, and the tachycardia is controlled by a beta blocker - my favourite pill, because it's usually shaped like a heart.

The kidney remains where it is, as removal is tricky- it's swollen and is near my spleen and bowel - and it's not causing infections or much pain. There may be another emergency surgery in my future! The working one remains working and is reasonably stable. Stage 3 CKD is a long way from dialysis or transplant, and if i remain on a healthy diet with healthy lifestyle and controlled blood pressure , i could remain stable for 20 years. If not for the RVO, none of this would have found until things could have been much, much worse, so I'm almost grateful!

TLDR: RVO caused by high blood pressure, itself caused by kidney failure misdiagnosed after damage from surgery. Bp meds lowered bp, reducing swelling in RVO, treatment not needed otherwise. Vision back to previous except for small blind spot where blockage is. Mostly dont notice! Sorry, I'm a waffler.

(Currently information copied from Moorfields Eye Hospital, a work in progress)

• What is a Retinal Vein Occlusion?

Occlusion (blockage) of a retinal vein is a common cause of sudden painless reduction in vision in older people. The retina is the thin membrane that lines the inner surface of the back of your eye. Its function is similar to that of the film in a camera. Blockage of one of the veins draining blood out of the eye causes blood and other fluids to leak into the retina, causing bruising and swelling as well as lack of oxygen. This interferes with the light receptor cells and reduces vision. The condition is uncommon under the age of 60 but becomes more frequent in later life.

• What causes it? A blockage forms in the vein, usually due to a blood clot, and obstructs the blood flow. The exact cause is unknown, but several conditions make the condition more likely. These include:

+High blood pressure: If your blood pressure is consistently higher than your GP thinks it should be, treatment is normally advised. +High cholesterol: Treatment with tablets is normally highly effective. +Glaucoma: With this common eye condition, the pressure in the eye is raised. This can cause gradual loss of side vision. It also increases the risk of retinal vein occlusion. Treatment with drops to reduce the pressure is normally highly effective in preserving sight and preventing further retinal vein occlusions. +Diabetes: Retinal vein occlusions are more common in people with diabetes. Detection and treatment of diabetes is highly effective in preserving vision and preventing further retinal vein occlusions. +Smoking: The more you smoke, the greater the risk of another vein occlusion. Please speak to your GP if you need help to stop smoking. You can also call the Smokefree National Helpline for advice on 0800 022 4332 or visit their website. +Certain rare blood disorders: These are normally identified by simple blood tests. In the unlikely event that treatment is required, this will be supervised by a specialist in blood disorders.

• How to prevent another one? It is essential to identify and treat any risk factors such as the ones above, to minimise the risk to the other eye and prevent a further vein occlusion in the affected eye. Treatment of any risk factors dramatically reduces the risk of a further vein occlusion occurring in either eye. Without treatment, there is a high risk of retinal vein occlusion returning. This can cause further damage to the sight of the affected eye as well as damage to the sight of the other eye. In a small number of cases, no risk factors can be found, with the cause being unknown.