Paraophthalmic Artery Aneurysm as the Underlying Cause of Branch Retinal Artery Occlusion

Branch retinal artery occlusion (BRAO) is a cause of painless vision loss that is due to sudden occlusion of the retinal arteries, retinal ischemia, and progressive cellular damage. Initial management involves identifying systemic etiologies that could be associated with the BRAO. Some of the commonly known risk factors for BRAO include hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, carotid artery stenosis, smoking, and coagulation disorders. Association of an aneurysm in the paraophthalmic section of internal carotid artery (ICA) and ophthalmic artery with central retinal arterial occlusion (CRAO) has been rarely reported but there is no such association with BRAO. Herein, we report a patient with 2 sequential BRAOs in one eye and identified aneurysm of the paraophthalmic ICA on the same side that presumably caused her BRAO.