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Transient Monocular Visual Loss Transient Monocular Visual Loss VALÉRIE BIOUSSE, MD AND JONATHAN D. TROBE, MD ● PURPOSE: To provide a practical update on the diagno- when most episodes of TMVL do not cause total loss of sis and management of transient monocular visual loss vision.2 (TMVL). The most important step in evaluating a patient with ● DESIGN: Perspective. visual loss is to establish whether the visual loss is ● METHODS: Review of the literature. monocular or binocular.2,5 Monocular visual loss always ● RESULTS: TMVL is an important clinical symptom. It results from lesions anterior to the chiasm (the eye or the has numerous causes but most often results from tran- optic nerve), whereas binocular visual loss results from sient retinal ischemia. It may herald permanent visual lesions of both eyes or optic nerves, or, more likely, of the loss or a devastating stroke, and patients with TMVL chiasm or retrochiasmal visual pathway. should be evaluated urgently. A practical approach to the Deciding whether an episode of abrupt visual loss evaluation of the patient with TMVL must be based on occurred in one eye or both is not always easy. Very few the patient’s age and the suspected underlying etiology. patients realize that binocular hemifield (homonymous) In the older patient, tests should be performed to inves- visual field loss affects the fields of both eyes. They will tigate giant cell arteritis, atherosclerotic large vessel usually localize it to the eye that lost its temporal field. The disease, and cardiac abnormalities. In the younger pa- best clues to the fact that visual loss was actually binocular tient, TMVL is usually benign and the evaluation should are reading impairment (monocular visual loss does not be tailored to the particular clinical setting. impair reading unless the unaffected eye had prior vision ● CONCLUSIONS: Specific prevention strategies are tai- impairment) and visual loss confined to a hemifield (mon- lored to the most likely cause of TMVL and the patient’s ocular visual loss does not usually cause that pattern of underlying risk factors. Prevention of a future event visual loss).2 should begin in the ophthalmologist’s office with educa- tion and aggressive treatment of artherosclerotic risk ● MECHANISMS OF TMVL: In most cases of TMVL, the factors. (Am J Ophthalmol 2005;140:717–722. © underlying mechanism is ischemia—to the retina or optic 2005 by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.) nerve (Table 1). Impaired ocular perfusion results from vascular conditions in or near the eye or remote from it. RANSIENT MONOCULAR VISUAL LOSS (TMVL) IS THE preferred term for abrupt and temporary visual loss ● TMVL CAUSED BY CONDITIONS IN OR NEAR THE T in one eye.1,2 The term “amaurosis fugax” (from the EYE: Ocular disorders such as intermittent angle closure Greek, amauros, meaning “dark,” and the Latin, fugax, glaucoma and hyphema may be mistaken for TMVL, meaning “fleeting”) does not specify whether the visual although these episodes usually last longer. Ocular surface loss occurred in one eye or both,1,3,4 and some authors have problems may cause intermittent blurred vision but are suggested that “amaurosis fugax” implies that the visual rarely mistaken for TMVL. Transient monocular visual loss is of ischemic origin.3 As indicated in Table 1, there loss may result from impaired perfusion in the retinal, are non-ischemic causes of TMVL.5,6 The term “transient choroidal, or optic nerve ciliary arteries, or less com- monocular blindness,” introduced by CM Fisher3 is also monly, reduced flow in the venous circulation draining not ideal because it implies that vision was entirely lost the eye. Retinal Artery Disorders. Transient visual loss may occur Accepted for publication Apr 10, 2005. From the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia with impending or partial retinal artery occlusion, typically (V.B.); and the University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, at the level of the lamina cribrosa. In most such cases, Michigan (J.D.T.). TMVL is described as areas of blank or fuzzy vision This study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health CORE Grant P30-EY06360 (Department of Ophthalmology); and a (“negative visual phenomena”). Less commonly, the pa- departmental grant (Department of Ophthalmology) from Research to tient describes flashes, sparkles, or scintillations (“positive Prevent Blindness, Inc, New York, New York. visual phenomena”). Ophthalmoscopy may reveal no ab- Inquiries to Valérie Biousse, MD, Neuro-ophthalmology Unit, Emory Eye Center, 1365-B Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322; fax: 404-778- normalities or show cotton wool spots, retinal emboli, 4849; e-mail: [email protected] retinal hemorrhages, retinal whitening, or dilated retinal 0002-9394/05/$30.00 © 2005 BY ELSEVIER INC.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 717.e1 doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2005.04.020 Choroidal Artery Disorders. TMVL from isolated choroi- TABLE 1. Differential Diagnosis of Transient dal ischemia is rare and should point to a vasculitic process Monocular Visual Loss (TMVL) such as giant cell arteritis.9,16 Vascular: Optic Nerve Arterial Disorders. TMVL is rarely a pre- Orbital ischemia (ophthalmic artery) Retinal ischemia (central retinal artery and its branches, monitory symptom of ischemic optic neuropathies. In central retinal vein) those cases, arteritic (rather than nonarteritic) ischemic Optic nerve ischemia (short posterior ciliary optic neuropathy should be suspected.5,9,16 arteries/ophthalmic artery) Choroidal ischemia (posterior ciliary arteries) Optic Disease Edema or Anomaly. Another important “Retinal migraine” (vasospastic TMVL) cause of TMVL is a swollen or congenitally anomalous Ocular diseases: optic disk (with or without optic disk drusen), which may Anterior segment: pinch off its own ciliary blood supply or the central retinal Dry eyes 2,5,17 Keratoconus artery. In such cases, the episodes of TMVL last only Hyphema seconds, occur frequently during the day, and are often Angle closure glaucoma provoked by changing gaze position, or, more commonly, Retinal detachment by assuming the upright posture (orthostatic). These ultra Optic nerve disorders: brief episodes of visual loss are called “transient visual Papilledema (transient visual obscurations) obscurations.”2,5,17 Orbital tumors may intermittently Optic disc drusen (transient visual obscurations) compress the ophthalmic or central retinal artery, thereby Congenitally anomalous optic disc (transient visual 5 obscurations) producing brief gaze-evoked TMVL. Optic nerve compression (gaze-evoked TMVL) ● Uhthoff’s phenomenon (demyelination) TMVL CAUSED BY CONDITIONS REMOTE FROM THE EYE: TMVL associated with conditions remote from the eye is caused by impaired ocular arterial flow from: (1) retinal emboli that originate in proximal arteries or the veins. Common causes are arteriosclerosis and hypercoag- heart5,18; or (2) stenosis of the ophthalmic, carotid, aortic 1,2,5–7 ulable/hyperviscous states. Less common causes are arch arterial vessels5; or (3) reduced cardiac output or vasculitis, radiation toxicity, and sudden elevations in systemic hypotension.1,2,5 intraocular pressure.2,5,6,8 Giant cell arteritis uncommonly causes TMVL by compromising retinal arterial flow; more Retinal Emboli. TMVL was first linked to retinal arterial frequently, the optic nerve circulation is affected.9 emboli 50 years ago when white fragments were observed by ophthalmoscopy to travel through the retinal arterial Idiopathic TMVL in Young Individuals: Vasospasm? Young tree during episodes of TMVL.4,7 These emboli originate people who have no evidence of vasculopathy may have most often from an atherosclerotic plaque at the carotid episodes of TMVL secondary to reversible vasospasm of bifurcation and less commonly from the aortic arch or retinal arteries.6,10–12 Documentation of this phenomenon is meager. Such vasospasm may be the basis for the TMVL ophthalmic artery. Patients with this symptom typically 19 of “retinal migraine.”10–12 According to the International complain of TMVL that lasts a few minutes at most. The Headache Society Criteria,13 the diagnosis of retinal mi- visual loss may be sectorial, usually altitudinal. graine should be made only in patients who develop positive visual phenomena over a few minutes and who Anterior Circulation Stenosis. Severe stenosis of the ca- have a history of migraine. In listening to the history, it is rotid or ophthalmic arteries or stenosis of the aortic arch impossible to distinguish TMVL as an isolated symptom of (in Takayashu arteritis or severe aortic arch atherosclero- retinal migraine/vasospasm from TMVL of other causes.14 sis) may cause TMVL by hypoperfusion rather than Therefore, retinal migraine/vasospasm should remain a embolism.1,2,5,20 diagnosis of exclusion. Hypotension. Finally, reduced cardiac output or systemic Retinal Vein Disorders. Recurrent TMVL may also arise hypotension may produce TMVL.5 Although TMVL is not from impending occlusion of the central retinal vein.15 typically an isolated symptom of systemic hypotension, Common causes are, as with retinal artery occlusion, which generally also causes lightheadedness, confusion, arteriosclerosis and hypercoagulable states. One must also and binocular visual loss, the combination of a drop in consider conditions that specifically cause orbital venous systemic blood pressure and asymmetric anterior circula- hypertension, such as compressive orbitopathies and ca- tion stenosis may cause TMVL alone, particularly ortho- rotid-cavernous fistulas. statically-induced TMVL.2,5 717.e2 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF OPHTHALMOLOGY
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