• An emboli-busting drug (in the case of hyaluronic acid, this would be hyaluronidase- possibly delivered intra-arterially by an adventurous interventional radiologist).
To be clear, your filler-blind patient needs to see (no pun intended) an ophthalmologist, preferably in a hospital with interventional radiology, immediately. Although you will be shaken, it could be beneficial for you to attend and explain the theory presented here as to how this might have happened. Don’t tell them about the pun above; they will have heard that one before.
Filler skin necrosis
Still frightening enough to make you think twice about your career choice, less rare than filler blindness and just as hot a topic at aesthetics conferences, is filler skin necrosis. Information on how to treat this condition has been extremely slow to emerge but, thanks to the “Expert Consensus on complications of Botulinum Toxin and Dermal Filler treatment” (March 2014) we at last have some guidelines on how to manage this nightmare scenario. This post is made partly from that publication but also taken from my knowledge and experience from the past year of attending aesthetics conferences funded by Galderma and Merz.
Recognition
This is the easy part. Most people, if they know enough about skin necrosis to fear it, will know the basics. You inject dermal filler, the surrounding skin goes white, you take off your gloves, gulp, call an ambulance and hand in your notice. Thankfully it’s not quite as bad as this. We’ll talk about prevention next, but first, let’s consider the risky areas. From the 32 cases reported worldwide (as of March 2014), most were from injections in the nasolabial region with glabellar frown lines being the second most common area. Blanching surrounding the area injected is the most common initial presentation if arterial occlusion has occurred but an abnormally dark-coloured bruise could be a sign of a venous occlusion- not as catastrophic but still much more spectacular than normal bruising. Following the initial arterial occlusion you might expect your patient to experience pain (immediately); but not always. This blanching would then be expected to give way to mottling and finally grey and black as the skin becomes necrotic.