Erectile Dysfunction Drugs and Eye Damage

An investigation into whether Vigra and other popular impotence treatment may cause permanent eye damage is unlikely to lead to a recall, federal officials and medical experts said Friday, but could prompt new warnings.

      The Food and Drug Administration is looking into 38 reports of eye damage in men who took Vigra, four involving Cialis, and one with Levitra. About 30 million men worldwide have taken the treatment.

      We haven t been able to determine that there is a cause and effect due to the treatment, FDA spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said. But we are taking it seriously.

      Most of the men who suffered eye damage did not go completely blind, but lost part of their vision in one eye. Complicating the FDA s investigation, many of the patients had other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, that would make them vulnerable to the particular kind of eye problem.

      The condition, nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, involves damage to the optic nerve caused by an interruption of blood supply.

      Trevino said the FDA is talking with Pfizer Inc., Viagra's manufacturer, about formally disclosing the risk in its prescribing literature for doctors. Eli Lilly & Co., which makes Cialis, recently changed its information to acknowledge reports of eye damage.

     Keep in mind, that people with diabetes often use these drugs, and they are prone to eye problems as well.

      It's way out of proportion, said Dr. Steven Schwartz, chief of the retina division at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA. He sent three cases to the FDA, but as in the other reports received by the agency, the patients had other risk factors for nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy.

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