A new treatment has left a woman temporarily blind due to a severe reaction to a beauty product commonly used in the UK.
The 61-year-old French woman, whose name was not released, was using an over-the-counter hair dye when a few days later she began experiencing blurred vision.
Doctors investigating the case examined his eyes using equipment similar to that used by opticians and found he had severe signs of retinopathy.
Retinopathy is the medical term for damage to the blood vessels that supply the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye that we use to see.
Case report in the magazine JAMA OphthalmologyDoctors attributed the cause to the woman’s use of a hair dye containing paraphenylenediamine.
The 61-year-old French woman, whose name has not been released, was using an over-the-counter hair dye when a few days later she began experiencing blurred vision. File image
Paraphenylenediamine, which belongs to a class of chemicals called aromatic amines, has previously been linked to health problems.
The NHS lists paraphenylenediamine as a common ingredient in many hair dyes and says it is the main cause of allergic reactions to these products, with the chemical found in particularly high amounts in darker shades.
Doctors in the most recent case suspected the woman’s vision problems were related to exposure to paraphenylenediamine based on the timing of the onset of symptoms shortly after using the product.
However, they did not report any of the product getting into the eyes, suggesting the chemical entered the bloodstream through other means.
It would be four months before the woman’s vision returned to normal.
Doctors added that the patient, after switching to a hair dye without paraphenylenediamine, did not experience any further problems during the four-year follow-up.
However, they noticed that he had signs of eye damage, more commonly associated with old age.
Concluding their report, the doctors said cases of hair dye-triggered retinopathy remain incredibly rare.
They theorized that paraphenylenediamine could enter the bloodstream through small cuts in a person’s scalp and from there disrupt the normal chemical reactions that keep eye cells healthy.
However, they noted that this was theoretical and that similar scalp cuts had not been observed in their cases or in other reported cases of the phenomenon.
They said that despite its rarity, doctors should keep hair dye-related retinopathy in mind when treating patients to advise them to avoid exposure and limit potential damage to their eyes.
The NHS stresses that products containing paraphenylenediamine are safe to use as the levels allowed in hair dyes are strictly controlled.
She added that most reactions to paraphenylenediamine are caused by people not following hair dye instructions and accidentally using too much.
The doctors did not report whether the woman in this case had used the product correctly.