Symptoms
Much of the brain's capacity is dedicated to visual function and eye movements. As a result, many types of neurologic diseases can affect vision in some way. Our service often sees patients who are experiencing symptoms such as:
- Visual loss due to optic nerve disorders
- Visual field loss
- Unexplained visual loss
- Transient visual loss
- Visual disturbances
- Double vision
- Abnormal eye movements
- Unequal pupil size
- Eyelid abnormalities
Conditions
These and other symptoms are frequently caused by one of the following conditions:
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Neuromyelitis optica - A chronic disease of the central nervous system, MS and neuro-visual complications of MS can lead to visual problems
- Myasthenia gravis - With this complex autoimmune disorder, antibodies destroy neuromuscular connections to cause problems with the nerves that communicate with muscles
- Pituitary tumors - These, usually benign, brain tumors press against the optic nerves, causing vision problems
- Migraine - Visual disturbances are one of the common symptoms of migraine
- Stroke - Dimness or loss of vision in one or both eyes may be attributable to stroke
- Autoimmune disease - These diseases can often affect the optic nerve and/or parts of the brain that serve vision
- Benign intracranial hypertension and papilledema