Immediate contralateral amaurosis after retrobulbar anesthesia.

Many potential complications associated with retrobulbar anesthesia have been reported. Of these, sudden loss of vision in the contralateral eye is the least expected. We report a case of immediate loss of vision in the fellow eye after retrobulbar anesthesia for cataract extraction. Possible etiology such as emboli thrown during ventricular fibrillation, direct optic nerve anesthetic injection with reflux to the chiasm, cortical stroke, amaurosis fugax, arterial injection of anesthetic material, and hysteric reaction are discussed.