Iatrogenic central retinal artery embolization: a complication of cardiac catheterization.

A 57-year-old man with a myocardial infarction was subjected to cardiac catheterization as a follow-up study for his heart problem. The catheter, made for one time use only, was reautoclaved and used sometime before catheterizing this man. A small fragment of this catheter dislodged while guiding the parent catheter into coronary vessels with a metallic guide-wire. The fragment traveled getting lodged in the central retinal artery of the right eye leaving the eye with only light perception vision. The catheter fragment could be seen in the central retinal artery at the optic nerve head.