Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors and Eye

Nowadays, Phosphodiesterase inhibitors (such as Sildenafil, Tadalafil, Vardenafil, and Avanafil) are used to treat erectile dysfunction in men and pulmonary arterial hypertension. There have been numerous reported ocular side effects of these drugs including anterior ischemic neuropathy, central serous chorioretinopathy, retinal hemorrhage, retinal vein occlusion, and retinal artery occlusion. Also, after taking phosphodiesterase inhibitors, various subjective vision complaints, such as Cyanopsia, blurred vision, diplopia, and photopsia are expressed by patients. We extensively searched phosphodiesterase inhibitors ocular side effects in the literature, using PubMed and Medline. In this review article, we classified the ocular side effects of these drugs and the controversies in the reports, the mechanism of action, paraclinical findings, as well as animal studies in this field.