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The optic nerve comprises axons that emerge from the retina of the eye and carry visual information to the primary visual nuclei, most of which is relayed to the occipital cortex of the brain to be processed into vision. Inflammation of the optic nerve causes loss of vision, usually because of the swelling and destruction of the myelin sheath covering the optic nerve.
The most common cause is multiple sclerosis or ischemic optic neuropathy (Blood Clot). Blood Clot that supplies the optic nerve. Up to 50% of patients with MS will develop an episode of optic neuritis, and 20-30% of the time optic neuritis is the presenting sign of MS. The presence of demyelinating white matter lesions on brain MRI at the time of presentation of optic neuritis is the strongest predictor for developing clinically definite MS. Almost half of the patients with optic neuritis have white matter lesions consistent with multiple sclerosis.
Some other common causes of optic neuritis include infection (e.g. Tooth Abscess in upper jaw, syphilis, Lyme disease, herpes zoster), autoimmune disorders (e.g. lupus, neurosarcoidosis, neuromyelitis optica), Pinch in Optic Nerve, Methanol poisoning, B12 deficiency and diabetes . Injury to the eye, which usually does not heal by itself.
Less common causes are: papilledema, brain tumor or abscess in occipitalregion, Cerebral trauma or hemorrhage, Meningitis Arachnoidal adhesions, sinus thrombosis, Liver Dysfunction or, Late Stage Kidney.
Optic neuritis typically affects young adults ranging from 18–45 years of age, with a mean age of 30–35 years. There is a strong female predominance. The annual incidence is approximately 5/100,000, with a prevalence estimated to be 115/100,000.
Autoimmune optic neuropathy (AON), sometimes called autoimmune optic neuritis, may be a forme fruste of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) associated optic neuropathy. AON is more than the presence of any optic neuritis in a patient with an autoimmune process, as it describes a relatively specific clinical syndrome. AON is characterized by chronically progressive or recurrent vision loss associated with serological evidence of autoimmunity. Specifically, this term has been suggested for cases of optic neuritis with serological evidence of vasculitis by positive ANA, despite the lack of meeting criteria for SLE. The clinical manifestations include progressive vision loss that tends to be steroid-responsive and steroid dependent.
Patients with defined SLE that go on to develop optic neuritis should be better identified as lupus optic neuritis.
The most recognized cause of a toxic optic neuropathy is methanol intoxication. This can be a life-threatening event that normally accidentally occurs when the victim mistook, or substituted, methanol for ethyl alcohol. Blindness can occur with drinking as little as an ounce of methanol, but this can be counteracted by concurrent drinking of ethyl alcohol. The patient initially has nausea and vomiting, followed by respiratory distress, headache, and visual loss 18–48 hours after consumption. Without treatment, patients can go blind, and their pupils will dilate and stop reacting to light.
- Ethylene glycol, a component of automobile antifreeze, is a poison that is toxic to the whole body including the optic nerve. Consumption can be fatal, or recovery can occur with permanent neurologic and ophthalmologic deficits. While visual loss is not very common, increased intracranial pressure can cause bilateral optic disc swelling from cerebral edema. A clue to the cause of intoxication is the presence of oxalate crystals in the urine. Like methanol intoxication, treatment is ethanol consumption.
- Ethambutol, a drug commonly used to treat tuberculosis, is notorious for causing toxic optic neuropathy. Patients with vision loss from ethambutol toxicity lose vision in both eyes equally. This initially presents with problems with colors (dyschromatopsia) and can leave central visual deficits. If vision loss occurs while using ethambutol, it would be best to discontinue this medication under a doctor’s supervision. Vision can improve slowly after discontinuing ethambutol but rarely returns to baseline.
- Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic medication commonly used for abnormal heart rhythms (atrial or ventricular tachyarrythmias). Most patients on this medication get corneal epithelial deposits, but this medication has also been controversially associated with NAION. Patients on amiodarone with new visual symptoms should be evaluated by an ophthalmologist.
- Tobacco exposure, most commonly through pipe and cigar smoking, can cause an optic neuropathy. Middle-aged or elderly men are often affected and present with painless, slowly progressive, color distortion and visual loss in both eyes. The mechanism is unclear, but this has been reported to be more common in individuals who are already suffering from malnutrition.
In ischemic optic neuropathies, there is insufficient blood flow (ischemia) to the optic nerve. The anterior optic nerve is supplied by the short posterior ciliary artery and choroidal circulation, while the retrobulbar optic nerve is supplied intraorbitally by a pial plexus, which arises from the ophthalmic artery, internal carotid artery, anterior cerebral artery, and anterior communicating arteries. Ischemic optic neuropathies are classified based on the location of the damage and the cause of reduced blood flow, if known.
- Anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (AION) includes diseases that affect the optic nerve head and cause swelling of the optic disc. These diseases often cause sudden rapid visual loss in one eye. Inflammatory diseases of the blood vessels, like giant cell arteritis, polyarteritis nodosa, Churg-Strauss syndrome, granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and rheumatoid arthritis can cause arteritic AIONs (AAION). The vast majority of AIONs are nonarteritic AIONs (NAION). The most common acute optic neuropathy in patients over 50 years of age, NAION has an annual incidence of 2.3-10.2/100,000. NAION presents as a painless loss of vision, often when awakening, that occurs over hours to days. Most patients lose the lower half of their visual field (an inferior altitudinal loss), though superior altitudinal loss is also common. The pathophysiology of NAION is unknown, but it is related to poor circulation in the optic nerve head. NAION is often associated with diabetes mellitus, elevated intraocular pressure (acute glaucoma, eye surgery), high cholesterol, hypercoagulable states, a drop in blood pressure (bleeding, cardiac arrest, peri-operative esp. cardiac and spine procedures), and sleep apnea. Rarely, amiodarone, interferon-alpha, and erectile dysfunction drugs have been associated with this disease.
- Posterior ischemic optic neuropathy is a syndrome of sudden visual loss with optic neuropathy without initial disc swelling with subsequent development of optic atrophy. This can occur in patients who are predisposed to AAION and NAION as described above as well as those who had cardiac and spine surgery or serious episodes of hypotension.
- Radiation optic neuropathy (RON) is also thought to be due to ischemia of the optic nerve that occurs 3 months to 8 or more years after radiation therapy to the brain and orbit. It occurs most often around 1.5 years after treatment and results in irreversible and severe vision loss, which may also be associated with damage to the retina (radiation retinopathy). This is thought to be due to damage to dividing glial and vascular endothelial cells. RON can present with transient visual loss followed by acute painless visual loss in one or both eyes several weeks later. The risk of RON is significantly increased with radiation doses over 50 Gy.
- There is also some evidence that interferon treatment (pegylated interferon with ribavirin) for hepatitis C virus can cause optic neuropathy.
Approximately 1-2% of patients with defined SLE develop an optic neuropathy during the course of their disease. SLE-associated optic neuritis is rarely the presenting sign of the disease. The molecular pathogenesis is hypothesized, based on clinical features and the emerging understanding of mechanisms in SLE. Inflammation resulting from auto-antibodies, immune complexes, T-cells and complement, probably damages the components of the optic nerve, as well as the blood vessels (vasculitis). The resulting vasculitis causes a loss of blood supply to the nerve (ischemia). This combination of inflammation and ischemia may produce reversible changes such as demyelination alone, or more permanent damage axonal (necrosis), or a combination. The poor recovery of vision in AON despite anti-inflammatory treatment suggests that ischemia from the underlying vasculitis is an important component, but the details have not been established. It may be reasonable to consider that AON pathogenesis represents an incomplete expression of the SLE-associated optic neuropathy disease process.
Optic papillitis is a specific type of optic neuritis. Inflammation of the optic nerve head is called "papillitis" or "intraocular optic neuritis"; inflammation of the orbital portion of the nerve is called "retrobulbar optic neuritis" or "orbital optic neuritis". It is often associated with substantial losses in visual fields, pain on moving the globe, and sensitivity to light pressure on the globe. It is often an early sign of multiple sclerosis.
Papillitis may have the same appearance as papilledema. However, papillitis may be unilateral, whereas papilledema is almost always bilateral. Papillitis can be differentiated from papilledema by an afferent pupillary defect (Marcus Gunn pupil), by its greater effect in decreasing visual acuity and color vision, and by the presence of a central scotoma. Papilledema that is not yet chronic will not have as dramatic an effect on vision. Because increased intracranial pressure can cause both papilledema and a sixth (abducens) nerve palsy, papilledema can be differentiated from papillitis if esotropia and loss of abduction are also present. However, esotropia may also develop secondarily in an eye that has lost vision from papillitis. Retrobulbar neuritis, an inflamed optic nerve, but with a normal-appearing nerve head, is associated with pain and the other findings of papillitis. Pseudopapilledema is a normal variant of the optic disk, in which the disk appears elevated, with indistinct margins and a normal vascular pattern. Pseudopapilledema sometimes occurs in hyperopic individuals.
Workup of the patient with papillitis includes lumbar puncture and cerebrospinal fluid analysis. B henselae infection can be detected by serology. MRI is the preferred imaging study. An abnormal MRI is associated with a worse visual outcome.
Perioperative PION patients have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors than in the general population. Documented cardiovascular risks in people affected by perioperative PION include high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, high levels of cholesterol in the blood, tobacco use, abnormal heart rhythms, stroke, and obesity. Men are also noted to be at higher risk, which is in accordance with the trend, as men are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease. These cardiovascular risks all interfere with adequate blood flow, and also may suggest a contributory role of defective vascular autoregulation.
Affected individuals are typically 20 to 50 years old. The female to male ratio is 2:1. By definition, there is no history of either surgical or accidental ocular trauma. VKH is more common in Asians, Latinos, Middle Easterners, American Indians, and Mexican Mestizos; it is much less common in Caucasians and in blacks from sub-Saharan Africa.
VKH is associated with a variety of genetic polymorphisms that relate to immune function. For example, VKH has been associated with human leukocyte antigens (HLA) HLA-DR4 and DRB1/DQA1, copy-number variations (CNV) of complement component 4, a variant IL-23R locus and with various other non-HLA genes. HLA-DRB1*0405 in particular appears to play an important susceptibility role.
Although there is sometimes a preceding viral infection, or skin or eye trauma, the exact underlying initiator of VKH disease remains unknown. However, VKH is attributed to aberrant T-cell-mediated immune response directed against self-antigens found on melanocytes. Stimulated by interleukin 23 (IL-23), T helper 17 cells and cytokines such as interleukin 17 (IL-17) appear to target proteins in the melanocyte.
With respect to embolic and hemodynamic causes, this transient monocular visual loss ultimately occurs due to a temporary reduction in retinal artery, ophthalmic artery, or ciliary artery blood flow, leading to a decrease in retinal circulation which, in turn, causes retinal hypoxia. While, most commonly, emboli causing amaurosis fugax are described as coming from an atherosclerotic carotid artery, any emboli arising from vasculature preceding the retinal artery, ophthalmic artery, or ciliary arteries may cause this transient monocular blindness.
- Atherosclerotic carotid artery: Amaurosis fugax may present as a type of transient ischemic attack (TIA), during which an embolus unilaterally obstructs the lumen of the retinal artery or ophthalmic artery, causing a decrease in blood flow to the ipsilateral retina. The most common source of these athero-emboli is an atherosclerotic carotid artery. However, a severely atherosclerotic carotid artery may also cause amaurosis fugax due to its stenosis of blood flow, leading to ischemia when the retina is exposed to bright light. "Unilateral visual loss in bright light may indicate ipsilateral carotid artery occlusive disease and may reflect the inability of borderline circulation to sustain the increased retinal metabolic activity associated with exposure to bright light."
- Atherosclerotic ophthalmic artery: Will present similarly to an atherosclerotic internal carotid artery.
- Cardiac emboli: Thrombotic emboli arising from the heart may also cause luminal obstruction of the retinal, ophthalmic, and/or ciliary arteries, causing decreased blood flow to the ipsilateral retina; examples being those arising due to (1) atrial fibrillation, (2) valvular abnormalities including post-rheumatic valvular disease, mitral valve prolapse, and a bicuspid aortic valve, and (3) atrial myxomas.
- Temporary vasospasm leading to decreased blood flow can be a cause of amaurosis fugax. Generally, these episodes are brief, lasting no longer than five minutes, and have been associated with exercise. These vasospastic episodes are not restricted to young and healthy individuals. "Observations suggest that a systemic hemodynamic challenge provoke[s] the release of vasospastic substance in the retinal vasculature of one eye."
- Giant cell arteritis: Giant cell arteritis can result in granulomatous inflammation within the central retinal artery and posterior ciliary arteries of eye, resulting in partial or complete occlusion, leading to decreased blood flow manifesting as amaurosis fugax. Commonly, amaurosis fugax caused by giant cell arteritis may be associated with jaw claudication and headache. However, it is also not uncommon for these patients to have no other symptoms. One comprehensive review found a two to nineteen percent incidence of amaurosis fugax among these patients.
- Systemic lupus erythematosus
- Periarteritis nodosa
- Eosinophilic vasculitis
- Hyperviscosity syndrome
- Polycythemia
- Hypercoagulability
- Protein C deficiency
- Antiphospholipid antibodies
- Anticardiolipin antibodies
- Lupus anticoagulant
- Thrombocytosis
- Subclavian steal syndrome
- Malignant hypertension can cause ischemia of the optic nerve head leading to transient monocular visual loss.
- Drug abuse-related intravascular emboli
- Iatrogenic: Amaurosis fugax can present as a complication following carotid endarterectomy, carotid angiography, cardiac catheterization, and cardiac bypass.
As illustrated by the risk factors above, perioperative hypoxia is a multifactorial problem. Amidst these risk factors it may be difficult to pinpoint the optic nerve’s threshold for cell death, and the exact contribution of each factor.
Low blood pressure and anemia are cited as perioperative complications in nearly all reports of PION, which suggests a causal relationship. However, while low blood pressure and anemia are relatively common in the perioperative setting, PION is exceedingly rare. Spine and cardiac bypass surgeries have the highest estimated incidences of PION, 0.028% and 0.018% respectively, and this is still extremely low. This evidence suggests that optic nerve injury in PION patients is caused by more than just anemia and low blood pressure.
Evidence suggests that the multifactorial origin of perioperative PION involves the risks discussed above and perhaps other unknown factors. Current review articles of PION propose that vascular autoregulatory dysfunction and anatomic variation are under-investigated subjects that may contribute to patient-specific susceptibility.
Ocular causes include:
- Iritis
- Keratitis
- Blepharitis
- Optic disc drusen
- Posterior vitreous detachment
- Closed-angle glaucoma
- Transient elevation of intraocular pressure
- Intraocular hemorrhage
- Coloboma
- Myopia
- Orbital hemangioma
- Orbital osteoma
- Keratoconjunctivitis sicca
Neuritis () is inflammation of a nerve or the general inflammation of the peripheral nervous system. Symptoms depend on the nerves involved but may include pain, paresthesia (pins-and-needles), paresis (weakness), hypoesthesia (numbness), anesthesia, paralysis, wasting, and disappearance of the reflexes.
Late congenital syphilitic oculopathy is a disease of the eye, a manifestation of late congenital syphilis. It can appear as:
- Interstitial keratitis – this commonly appears between ages 6 and 12. Symptoms include lacrimation and photophobia. Pathological vascularization of the cornea cause it to turn pink or salmon colored. 90% of cases affect both eyes.
- Episcleritis or scleritis – nodules appear in or overlying the sclera (white of eye)
- Iritis or iris papules – vascular infiltration of the iris causes rosy color change and yellow/red nodules.
- Chorioretinitis, papillitis, retinal vasculitis – retinal changes can resemble retinitis pigmentosa.
- Exudative retinal detachment
Congenital syphilis is categorized by the age of the child. Early congenital syphilis occurs in children under 2 years old, and late congenital syphilis in children at or greater than 2 years old. Manifestations of late congenital syphilis are similar to those of secondary syphilis and tertiary syphilis in adults.
This is a partial list of human eye diseases and disorders.
The World Health Organization publishes a classification of known diseases and injuries, the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, or ICD-10. This list uses that classification.
By far the most common cause of IK is syphilitic disease. However, there are two possible causes of the corneal inflammatory response: an infection and/or an immunological response, such as a hypersensitivity type reaction, or (rarely) Cogan syndrome. Infectious causes include syphilis (commonest), followed by other bacterial infections (TB, Leprosy and Lyme disease) and parasitic infections (Acanthamoeba, Onchocerciasis or river blindness, Leishmaniasis, Trypanosoma cruzi or "Chagas disease", Trypanosoma brucei or "African sleeping sickness" and microsporidia)
There are many causes of blurred vision:
- Use of atropine or other anticholinergics
- Presbyopia—Difficulty focusing on objects that are close. Common in the elderly. (Accommodation tends to decrease with age.)
- Cataracts—Cloudiness over the eye's lens, causing poor night-time vision, halos around lights, and sensitivity to glare. Daytime vision is eventually affected. Common in the elderly.
- Glaucoma—Increased pressure in the eye, causing poor night vision, blind spots, and loss of vision to either side. A major cause of blindness. Glaucoma can happen gradually or suddenly—if sudden, it is a medical emergency.
- Diabetes—Poorly controlled blood sugar can lead to temporary swelling of the lens of the eye, resulting in blurred vision. While it resolves if blood sugar control is reestablished, it is believed repeated occurrences promote the formation of cataracts (which are not temporary).
- Diabetic retinopathy—This complication of diabetes can lead to bleeding into the retina. Another common cause of blindness.
- Hypervitaminosis A—Excess consumption of vitamin A can cause blurred vision.
- Macular degeneration—Loss of central vision, blurred vision (especially while reading), distorted vision (like seeing wavy lines), and colors appearing faded. The most common cause of blindness in people over age 60.
- Eye infection, inflammation, or injury.
- Sjögren's syndrome, a chronic autoimmune inflammatory disease that destroys moisture producing glands, including lacrimal (tear)
- Floaters—Tiny particles drifting across the eye. Although often brief and harmless, they may be a sign of retinal detachment.
- Retinal detachment—Symptoms include floaters, flashes of light across your visual field, or a sensation of a shade or curtain hanging on one side of your visual field.
- Optic neuritis—Inflammation of the optic nerve from infection or multiple sclerosis. You may have pain when you move your eye or touch it through the eyelid.
- Stroke or transient ischemic attack
- Brain tumor
- Toxocara—A parasitic roundworm that can cause blurred vision
- Bleeding into the eye
- Temporal arteritis—Inflammation of an artery in the brain that supplies blood to the optic nerve.
- Migraine headaches—Spots of light, halos, or zigzag patterns are common symptoms prior to the start of the headache. A retinal migraine is when you have only visual symptoms without a headache.
- Myopia—Blurred vision may be a systemic sign of local anaesthetic toxicity
- Reduced blinking—Lid closure that occurs too infrequently often leads to irregularities of the tear film due to prolonged evaporation, thus resulting in disruptions in visual perception.
- Carbon monoxide poisoning—Reduced oxygen delivery can effect many areas of the body including vision. Other symptoms caused by CO include vertigo, hallucination and sensitivity to light.
The following are not classified as diseases of the eye and adnexa (H00-H59) by the World Health Organization:
- (B36.1) Keratomycosis — fungal infection of the cornea
- (E50.6-E50.7) Xerophthalmia — dry eyes, caused by vitamin A deficiency
- (Q13.1) Aniridia — a rare congenital eye condition leading to underdevelopment or even absence of the iris of the eye
Devic's disease has been associated with many systemic diseases, based on anecdotal evidence of some Devic's disease patients with a comorbid condition. Such conditions include: collagen vascular diseases, autoantibody syndromes, infections with varicella-zoster virus, Epstein–Barr virus, and HIV, and exposure to clioquinol and antituberculosis drugs.
The discovery of NMO-IgG has opened a new way into the research for the causes. Currently two principal causes are accepted:
- In NMO-IgG positive patients, the cause of the neuromyelitis optica (understood as the syndrome) is an autoimmune aquaporin-4 channelopathy, due to these specific autoantibodies. In these cases, astrocytes are the victims of the autoimmune attack.
- In NMO-IgG negative patients, or at least a subset of them, the cause is an antiMOG associated encephalomyelitis,
About the presence of NMO-IgG, some researchers have pointed out that some other cases could be paraneoplastic. It seems also clear that lupus can produce NMO-IgG autoantibodies sometimes, leading to some cases of lupus-derived NMO.
In any case, the IgG generation is produced mainly intrathecally.
Normally, some measure of improvement appears in a few weeks, but residual signs and disability may persist, sometimes severely.
The disease can be monophasic, i.e. a single episode with permanent remission. However, at least 85% of patients have a relapsing form of the disease with repeated attacks of transverse myelitis and/or optic neuritis. In patients with the monophasic form, the transverse myelitis and optic neuritis occur simultaneously or within days of each other. On the other hand, patients with the relapsing form are more likely to have weeks or months between the initial attacks, and to have better motor recovery after the initial transverse myelitis event. Relapses usually occur early, with about 55% of patients having a relapse in the first year and 90% in the first five years.
It is possible that the relapsing form is related to the antiAQP4+ seropositive status and the monophasic form related to its absence Unlike multiple sclerosis, Devic's disease rarely has a secondary progressive phase in which patients have increasing neurologic decline between attacks without remission. Instead, disabilities arise from the acute attacks.
Approximately 20% of patients with monophasic Devic's disease have permanent visual loss, and 30% have permanent paralysis in one or both legs. Among patients with relapsing Devic's disease, 50% have paralysis or blindness within five years. In some patients (33% in one study), transverse myelitis in the cervical spinal cord resulted in respiratory failure and subsequent death. However, the spectrum of Devic's disease has widened due to improved diagnostic criteria, and the options for treatment have improved; as a result, researchers believe these estimates will be lowered.
The corneal scarring is the end result of the initial invasion of blood vessels into the corneal stroma as part of the inflammatory response. Since normal corneal tissue should be avascular (no blood vessel) and therefore clear to allow light to pass, the presence of blood vessel and the infiltration of cells as part of the inflammatory process results in scarring or hazing of the cornea.
Causes of photophobia relating directly to the eye itself include:
- Achromatopsia
- Aniridia
- Anticholinergic drugs may cause photophobia by paralyzing the iris sphincter muscle.
- Aphakia (absence of the lens of the eye)
- Blepharitis
- Buphthalmos (abnormally narrow angle between the cornea and iris)
- Cataracts
- Coloboma
- Cone dystrophy
- Congenital abnormalities of the eye
- Viral conjunctivitis ("pink eye")
- Corneal abrasion
- Corneal dystrophy
- Corneal ulcer
- Disruption of the corneal epithelium, such as that caused by a corneal foreign body or keratitis
- Ectopia lentis
- Endophthalmitis
- Eye trauma caused by disease, injury, or infection such as chalazion, episcleritis, glaucoma, keratoconus, or optic nerve hypoplasia
- Hydrophthalmos, or congenital glaucoma
- Iritis
- The drug isotretinoin (Accutane/Roaccutane) has been associated with photophobia
- Optic neuritis
- Pigment dispersion syndrome
- Pupillary dilation (naturally or chemically induced)
- Retinal detachment
- Scarring of the cornea or sclera
- Uveitis
Neurological causes for photophobia include:
- Autism spectrum disorders
- Chiari malformation
- Occipital Neuralgia
- Dyslexia
- Encephalitis including Myalgic encephalomyelitis aka Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Meningitis
- Trigeminal disturbance causes central sensitization (hence, multiple other associated hypersensitivities. Causes can be bad bite, infected tooth, etc.
- Subarachnoid haemorrhage
- Tumor of the posterior cranial fossa
Distortion of vision refers to straight lines not appearing straight, but instead bent, crooked, or wavy. Usually this is caused by distortion of the retina itself. This distortion can herald a loss of vision in macular degeneration, so anyone with distorted vision should seek medical attention by an ophthalmologist promptly. Other conditions leading to swelling of the retina can cause this distortion, such as macular edema and central serous chorioretinopathy.
An Amsler grid can be supplied by an ophthalmologist so that the vision can be monitored for distortion in people who may be predisposed to this problem.
Tunnel vision implies that the peripheral vision, or side vision, is lost, while the central vision remains. Thus, the vision is like looking through a tunnel, or through a paper towel roll. Some disorders that can cause this include:
Glaucoma - severe glaucoma can result in loss of nearly all of the peripheral vision, with a small island of central vision remaining. Sometimes even this island of vision can be lost as well.
Retinitis pigmentosa - This is usually a hereditary disorder which can be part of numerous syndromes. It is more common in males. The peripheral retina develops pigmentary deposits, and the peripheral vision gradually becomes worse and worse. The central vision can be affected eventually as well. People with this problem may have trouble getting around in the dark. Cataract can be a complication as well. There is no known treatment for this disorder, and supplements of Vitamin A have not been proven to help.
Punctate Inner Choroidopathy - This condition is where vessels gro (( material is missing ))
Stroke - a stroke involving both sides of the visual part of the brain may wipe out nearly all of the peripheral vision. Fortunately, this is a very rare occurrence