Is NAION A Risk When Taking Levitra?

There have been some reports of men taking FDA approved drugs for erectile dysfunction that have suffered vision loss, due to nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, also known as NAION. According to statistics of all the millions of men taking these types of drugs have been approximately 43 men. Making it an extremely rare occurrence.

This is because these types of erectile dysfunction medications are what is known as a type 5 phosphodiesterase inhibitor or a PDE-5 inhibitor, this includes Levitra, Viagra and Cialis.

NAION is a vascular condition where it is presumed there is a decrease in blood flow to the small arteries that supply blood to the optic nerve. This can cause damage to the optic nerve, which can lead to blindness, which in many cases can be temporary, or it can be permanent.

This condition can occur with any of the medications for erectile dysfunction, and it is cause is not exactly known. What is known of the handful of men that this has happened to out of the millions of men taking these FDA approved drugs is that they were over 50 years of age and may have had other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, hypercholesterolemia or other medical conditions.