Temporary blindness: why does it appear and how to deal with it? Complete loss of vision What blindness looks like

Vision loss may be permanent or temporary. But temporary vision loss, also known as “intermittent blindness,” can precede complete vision loss, and can only be avoided with proper diagnosis and timely treatment.

This problem can be encountered at any age, but most often it is typical for older people: according to statistics, in 80% of cases this disorder is observed in people over 60 years of age.

Causes

The disease can manifest itself in different ways: sometimes both eyes stop seeing, although most often this affects one eye. The nature of the disorder may also vary, which can be expressed either in a sharp deterioration in vision and the inability to distinguish details, or in the occurrence of “blind” spots, when a person’s field of vision is limited (sometimes partial or complete darkening of vision is possible).

Such blindness occurs suddenly, without obvious reasons, and can last up to 20 minutes, but experts are confident that there are always certain prerequisites for loss of vision for a short time. There are three main causes of temporary blindness:

1. Spasm of the orbital artery, which supplies the retina with blood. Usually in this case one eye completely loses vision. This most often occurs when the eyes are exposed to too much bright light.
2. Blockage of the vertebral arteries.
3. High intracranial pressure (in this case, loss of vision occurs while the person is in a standing position).

These are the main, but not the only causes of the disease: less obvious factors also lead to temporary loss of visual functions.

Eye fatigue

This condition is called asthenopia and can manifest itself when the load is too strong and unusual for the eye:

• reading in low light;
• constant long-term work at the computer;
• regular driving at night;
• watching TV for more than 4–5 hours in a row.

In such cases, vision loss is associated with other symptoms: pain appears in the eyes, watery eyes are observed, and it becomes difficult to read small print or concentrate on individual details. At the same time, the slightest effort leads to dizziness and headaches.

Such blindness is expressed in deterioration of vision in the dark, and the intensity of lighting plays a key role here. In this case, various variations of this disorder can be observed - from a deterioration in the perception of certain (or any) colors to a drop in visual acuity; In such cases, a person’s spatial orientation is often disturbed.

How violations manifest themselves

In most cases, temporary blindness occurs without pain, and patients describe their sensations as a sudden shadow or dark spot appearing before their eyes, comparing the appearance of such “obstacles” to a curtain falling in front of their face.

Although this condition almost always goes away quickly, it can recur at any time, and it is possible to lose vision in both eyes simultaneously or alternately.

Sometimes such a violation manifests itself in the inability to distinguish certain colors and shades, the outlines of objects, and determine their shape.

Apart from cases of overwork, in all other situations loss of vision for a short time is associated with atherosclerotic diseases and vascular diseases. The mechanism for the occurrence of temporary blindness is as follows:

1. Blood clots (thrombi) break off from the walls of arteries and blood vessels and enter the eye vessels.
2. The blood supply is blocked.
3. If such blood clots are small in size and density, they will collapse on their own, after which the blindness goes away.

Often, such blood clots can be eliminated only by prescribing anticoagulants to the patient, but there is a list of recommendations that can help you cope with the problem yourself or significantly reduce the likelihood of its occurrence.

What to do if you are temporarily blind

It is important to understand that, having once experienced temporary loss of vision, a person runs the risk of relapse for the rest of his life, so patients who are faced with such an illness (especially in old age) must follow the following instructions.

You shouldn't expose your eyes to direct sunlight, but you shouldn't avoid walking outdoors either. It is enough to wear dark sunglasses when leaving the house. It is necessary to use darkened models that do not transmit ultraviolet radiation: glasses with a mirror surface reflect visible light, but are powerless against ultraviolet radiation.

It is necessary to visit an ophthalmologist regularly, and all his instructions must be followed.

It is worth paying special attention to nutrition: the consumption of excessively fatty foods must be eliminated by adding more plant foods to the diet. Ideally, you should give up drinking alcohol and smoking, or at least not abuse these habits.

The doctor can prescribe vitamins and recommend a special one, which can not only reduce the likelihood of temporary vision loss, but also increase its sharpness.

When is vision at risk?

If blindness, which occurs and goes away from time to time, occurs in youth, there is a high probability that this problem is temporary and does not pose a threat.

You just need to put your diet in order, monitor your daily routine and avoid overwork when working at the computer - and such an illness will not appear at all.

Also, one should not attach importance to temporary blindness that occurs after various surgical operations during which the patient loses a large amount of blood. This also applies to serious injuries, as well as childbirth - in these cases, loss of vision may appear at first, but over time the disease will disappear.

The occurrence of temporary blindness due to the use of surrogate alcohol, certain types of alcohols and their substitutes is considered as a separate problem. In this case, blindness, which manifests itself as a result of poisoning of the body on the very first day, goes away in 85% of cases. The remaining 15% accounts for complete or partial loss of vision.

In some cases, in older people, such a disorder may be a consequence of atherosclerosis and ischemia, and even if the patient does not complain of heart problems, it is worth being examined not only by an ophthalmologist and ophthalmologist, but also by a cardiologist. The older the patient, the higher the risk that frequent loss of vision for a short time is a harbinger of heart attacks and strokes.

Temporary vision loss is predominantly an age-related disease, but it can occur at any age. In such cases, you should not attribute everything to fatigue and assume that the problem will not have serious consequences. And even if this happens extremely rarely, you need to play it safe - get examined by an ophthalmologist in order to prevent more serious diseases in time.

The worst thing that can happen to a person is sudden loss of vision. After all, vision is the sense organ through which we can navigate in this world, see/communicate with others, carry out everyday activities, and, ultimately, guarantee ourselves safety in terms of movement in space.

Why does blindness occur?

There are several main reasons for the onset - we will list them. Sudden vision loss can occur due to:

• Diseases/damages of the retina;
• In case of acute obstruction of the central artery in the retina No.
• With total hemophthalmia;
• With traumatic brain injury.

Symptoms of acute retinal artery obstruction

A pathology such as acute obstruction of the central retinal artery differs from most eye diseases in that it occurs quite suddenly. The first symptom that cannot be ignored is a sharp (sudden) loss of vision.

The cause of acute obstruction of the retinal artery must be sought in spasm of blood vessels or in thrombosis of the artery.

Important!

Those at risk for sudden loss include patients with hypertension; patients with heart defects; those who have chronic infectious lesions.

So, the first symptom of this pathology is sudden loss of vision. If you look at the retina of the eye, you will notice heavy hemorrhage in the center of the eye. This is explained by the fact that blood stagnates in the blood arteries.

What to do in case of acute retinal artery obstruction?

If a person suddenly loses his vision due to acute obstruction of the retinal artery and you know for sure that he is in the main risk group (hypertension, heart defects), then in this case it is necessary:

• Place nitroglycerin under the patient's tongue;
• Give validol;
• Call an ambulance;
• If there is such a possibility, then administer 10 ml of aminophylline solution (2.4%) intravenously;
• Also, 1 ml of nicotinic acid 1% is injected intravenously;
• Emergency doctors administer: 0.3 ml of caffeine solution, 1000 units of fibronolysin, 500 units of retrobulbar and intravenous steptodecase.

Patients diagnosed with sudden loss of vision must be urgently hospitalized in the eye department.

Loss of vision due to hemorrhoids

A person may suddenly lose vision due to excessive hemorrhage in the vitreous humor of the eye. This leads to a sudden loss of vision. The phenomenon of hemorrhage occurs due to the fact that blood vessels in the patient's eyeball rupture.

The risk group for hemorrhagic fever includes those who have suffered as a result of an accident; suffered a traumatic brain injury; those who were shell-shocked due to negative external influences; as a result of an acute stabbing wound; due to pathologies of the cardiovascular system; under the influence of a diabetic coma; as well as those who suffer from arterial hypertension.

What to do with hemorrhagic fever?

A patient diagnosed with hemophthalmia is given an emergency dose of 750 units. fibronolysin, then 2000 units. streptokinase and the same amount of streptodecase (injection is made under the conjunctiva).

Be sure to take ascorbic acid and the hemostatic agent dicinone orally. Patients with sudden loss of vision must be urgently hospitalized in a medical facility.

Cerebrovascular accident

If cerebral circulation is impaired, a person may suddenly experience so-called cortical blindness. This phenomenon occurs when the occipital lobes of the brain are simultaneously affected.

The risk group for cortical blindness includes: patients suffering from hypertension, as well as those who have been poisoned by poisons or chemicals.

The first symptoms of cerebrovascular accident are the lack of reaction of the pupil to light, the inability of a person to orientate himself in space. Then, it is discovered that the person has completely or partially lost his vision.

Important!

Patients with cerebrovascular accidents must be urgently hospitalized in the neurological department, where appropriate medical care will be provided.

Hysterical state and vision

Loss of vision can occur due to acute hysteria. If the patient has been nervous for a long period of time, hysterical, screaming, or losing his temper, then an unpleasant symptom such as sudden immersion in darkness, loss of consciousness, and even paralysis of the limbs occurs.

Before this, a person feels that he is stuck, his gait is disturbed, his orientation in space and time is lost, and goosebumps appear before his eyes.

In this case, others must call an ambulance, and the patient must be given any sedative and not disturbed until the doctors arrive.

Classification of blindness

Sudden (sharp) blindness can be of several types:

• Intermittent - a person loses vision for a while due to embolism of the ophthalmic artery. After some time, full vision is restored.
• Optical – when the blood circulation of the optic nerve is impaired, sudden temporary loss of vision occurs.
• Temporal arteritis - if treatment for this pathology is not started in a timely manner, the treatment will completely destroy the ability to see. The first symptom of pathology is a feeling of noise in the head and pulsation in the temples. Treatment is with prednisone.
• Ischemic optic neuropathy occurs in those who have had diabetes for several years. Treatment should be carried out from the underlying disease, since vision loss is only a symptom.
• Partial loss of vision (in one eye) – when a person’s eye tissue suddenly begins to peel off, vision loss begins. The first symptom is migraine. The risk group includes those who have suffered one or more strokes, as well as HIV-infected patients.

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Blindness- inability to perceive visual stimuli - can be sudden or gradual, temporary or irreversible, partial or complete.

Vision loss may result from an ocular, neurological or systemic disease, injury, or the use of certain medications.

The outcome of the disease often depends on timely, correct diagnosis and adequate treatment.

Possible causes of blindness include:

This disease can cause repeated attacks of one-sided blindness that last from a few seconds to several minutes. The rest of the time, vision is normal. The examination may reveal increased intraocular pressure and some other abnormalities in the affected eye.

2. Cataract.

It usually manifests as a painless, subtle and gradual loss of vision that precedes blindness. The disease is progressive and can only be treated surgically.

3. Contusion.

Head injuries are immediately observed. The patient may have blurred vision, double vision, or loss of vision. These phenomena are usually temporary. Other signs include: headache, amnesia, altered consciousness, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, irritability, somnolence and aphasia.

4. Hereditary corneal dystrophy can cause vision loss, which is accompanied by pain, photophobia, lacrimation and corneal clouding.

5. Diabetic retinopathy.

Swelling and hemorrhage lead to visual impairment, which can progress to complete blindness. Observed in uncontrolled diabetes mellitus.

6. Endophthalmitis.

This intraocular inflammation usually occurs after a penetrating injury to the eye, eye surgery, etc. Unilateral vision loss is irreversible. The inflammation may even spread to the neighboring eye.

7. Glaucoma.

This disease causes progressive damage to the optic nerve, leading to complete blindness. The reason for this is increased intraocular pressure. Sometimes the disease occurs in the form of acute angle-closure glaucoma - this is a condition that requires urgent treatment, as it can lead to complete blindness within 3-5 days. But more often, glaucoma proceeds for years without showing itself in any way.

8. Shingles(Herpes zoster virus).

When a viral infection affects the nasociliary nerve, bilateral blindness can occur. The disease is accompanied by a rash in the nose, conjunctivitis and paralysis of the eye muscles.

9. Hyphema- blood in the anterior chamber of the eye.

The accumulation of blood can interfere with light perception, reducing vision. Hyphema is usually the result of injury to the eye.

10. Keratitis- inflammation of the cornea - can eventually cause complete loss of vision in the affected eye. The disease is accompanied by lacrimation, photophobia, irritation and clouding of the cornea.

11. Eye injury.

Sudden one-sided or two-sided blindness can occur due to injury to the eye. Vision loss due to trauma can be partial or complete, temporary or permanent, depending on which structures are affected.

12. Optic atrophy.

Degeneration, or atrophy, of the optic nerve can cause a narrowing of the visual field, impaired color perception, and complete loss of vision. Atrophy can occur spontaneously or as a result of inflammatory diseases.

13. Neuritis(inflammation of) the optic nerve usually results in severe but temporary unilateral vision loss. Inflammation is accompanied by slow pupillary response, visual field defects, and pain around the eye, especially when moving the eyeball.

14. Paget's disease.

In this disease, bone pressure on the cranial nerves leads to bilateral blindness, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, dizziness, and headaches. Characterized by constant, severe pain in the bones.

15. Papilledema occurs due to increased intracranial pressure. It can occur in acute and chronic form.

16. Pituitary tumor.

As the tumor grows, patients may experience progressive visual impairment, up to complete bilateral blindness. Nystagmus, ptosis, limited eye movement, double vision, and headache may be observed.

17. Retinal artery occlusion.

This is a painless, extremely dangerous condition that causes unilateral vision loss, which can be complete or partial. After several hours without treatment, blindness becomes irreversible, so retinal vascular thrombosis must be treated immediately.

18. Retinal detachment.

This severe condition may cause painless, sudden loss of vision. Urgent treatment is required.

19. Rift Valley Fever.

One of the complications of this viral disease is inflammation of the retina, which can lead to vision loss. Other signs of illness include: fever, muscle pain, weakness, dizziness, back pain. Some patients develop encephalitis or hemorrhagic complications.

20. Senile retinal dystrophy causes painless loss of vision. Blindness can occur relatively quickly or develop gradually. Visual acuity may be much worse at night.

21. Stevens-Johnson syndrome.

With this serious disease, scarring of the cornea leads to loss of vision, which may be accompanied by purulent conjunctivitis and eye pain. Other symptoms include: fever, rash, malaise, cough, sore throat, vomiting, chest pain, muscle and joint pain, and kidney failure.

22. Giant cell arteritis.

Inflammation of the blood vessels leads to vision problems, as well as a one-sided, throbbing headache. Other signs are malaise, anorexia, weight loss, weakness, muscle pain, and a slight increase in temperature.

23. Trachoma (chlamydial infection).

This rare disease can initially cause varying degrees of visual impairment in combination with a “minor” infection similar to bacterial conjunctivitis. Signs include: inflammation of the eyelids, pain, photophobia, lacrimation, discharge from the eye, etc.

24. Uveitis - inflammation of the uveal tract(choroid) - can cause unilateral vision loss. Uveitis can cause pain, severe injection of conjunctival vessels, photophobia, blurred vision, and visual errors.

25. Vitreous hemorrhage.

This condition may result from eye trauma, ocular tumors, or systemic diseases (especially diabetes, hypertension, sickle cell disease, leukemia). Hemorrhage can cause sudden blindness and redness of the eye. Vision loss may be irreversible.

Medicines that can cause vision loss include the following:

Causes of vision loss in children.

Other congenital causes of blindness in children include Marfan syndrome, amblyopia (lazy eye), and retinitis pigmentosa.

Konstantin Mokanov

Blindness occurs when the visual ability of the optical system is affected. This disease is characterized by either a significant decrease in visual function or its complete loss.

This reduces both peripheral and central vision. There are several types of blindness:

• Total, or absolute, blindness.
• Practical blindness.

In complete blindness, vision is absent on both sides. In cases of practical blindness, light perception or slight color perception may be preserved.

Causes of blindness

Usually a person is afraid of remaining blind, so this condition gives rise to many questions. For example, is it possible to go blind while sleeping? Doctors have a unanimous opinion regarding the occurrence of blindness: a healthy person cannot suddenly develop blindness. Most often, this pathology is a consequence of various diseases:

• Glaucoma;
• Anchocerciasis;
• Cataract;
• Trachoma;
• Degeneration of the optic spot;
• Diabetic retinopathy;
• Injury;
• Xerophthalmia, keratomalacia.

There are some types of blindness that do not involve a complete lack of vision.

These include, for example, color blindness. In this case, the patient is unable to distinguish some colors. This disease occurs more often in men (about 8%), but can also be diagnosed in women (less than 1%). Despite the impairment of color vision, vision in such patients remains normal.

Night blindness is accompanied by a significant decrease in visual function in twilight lighting conditions. This condition is often genetic in nature, but can also develop as a result of certain diseases. With such visual impairment, the patient sees well during daylight hours, but in the evening and at night he practically cannot distinguish objects.

With so-called snow blindness, visual function deteriorates significantly under conditions of powerful ultraviolet radiation. Quite often, this pathology resolves due to the proliferation of tissue on the surface of the cornea. It is important to note that snow blindness never results in permanent loss of visual function. Typically, after high-power ultraviolet irradiation, patients can perceive at least the outlines of objects, bright light, people’s movements, etc.

Blindness is either temporary or permanent in nature. To assess the degree of vision loss, it is necessary to determine the boundaries of the visual field, as well as visual acuity for each eye separately. Sometimes vision disappears suddenly, but in other cases there is a gradual decline until complete absence. To determine the degree of visual impairment, you should definitely visit an ophthalmologist and undergo an examination. Fortunately, not all types of blindness are irreversible, so it is worth starting treatment on time and hoping for a successful outcome.

In this case, vision is usually not restored in case of hemorrhage in the brain substance or damage to the fibers of the optic nerve.

Diagnostics

A person is considered blind if he lacks visual function on both sides. In this case, there may be light perception and residual vision (from 0.01 to 0.05 diopters). In this case, you can choose corrective glasses for the better-seeing eye.
A blind person cannot perceive the shape, color, size, location of objects; such patients are poorly oriented in space, as they are not able to assess distance, direction of movement and other characteristics. All this leads to a decrease in sensory perception of the surrounding world. Simultaneously with the fading of visual function, in this category of patients sound perception is exacerbated. Such people find it much easier to navigate their environment based on subtle sound signals. Due to blindness, the formation of movements slows down. Some blind people experience deviations in the volitional and emotional spheres. Over time, the patient gets used to the new life, and blindness ceases to be perceived as painful. Instead of the visual analyzer, a person uses other ways of understanding the world around him (auditory, skin-sensory, motor and other types of perception). This helps stabilize mental processes and restore voluntary attention, generalized perception, logical memory and abstract thinking. These factors help even blind people to perceive reality correctly. When forming imaginative thinking, patients are helped by ideas that have been preserved in memory from the time of normal vision.

Total blindness is usually caused by damage to the optic nerve fibers, stroke, or other irreversible conditions. However, despite treatment, visual function, as a rule, cannot be restored. To improve the quality of life of blind patients, various devices can be used that are introduced into everyday life. These include books or manuals in Braille, special computer programs, and some devices.

With the sudden development of blindness, a person always experiences serious emotional shock. In addition to neuroses, such patients often experience depression, so not only ophthalmologists, but also psychologists or psychotherapists should treat this category of patients.

In modern ophthalmological practice, doctors are intensively looking for ways to eliminate acquired color blindness. They are mainly aimed at eliminating the causes of the disease. Sometimes vision is restored after stopping the drug that led to such consequences.

Prevention

Often, with proper treatment and timely detection of diseases, blindness can be avoided. For example, if you follow basic safety rules, you can significantly reduce the risk of developing traumatic blindness. In case of essential visual impairment, special attention should be paid to the diet. In the case of glaucoma, it is very important to monitor the level of intraocular pressure, as this will help prevent atrophy of the optic nerve fibers.

Patients with metabolic disorders need to monitor their weight and blood sugar concentration. It’s also a good idea to give up bad habits. This will help prevent blindness associated with diabetic retinopathy.

Due to the fact that blindness often occurs as a result of various ophthalmological diseases, it is important to regularly visit an ophthalmologist and undergo a minimal examination. At the same time, it is worth choosing a clinic that employs experienced and caring specialists who are able to identify signs of the disease in the early stages and provide comprehensive treatment.

Intermittent blindness, otherwise known as temporary loss of vision, affects a person instantly and also disappears instantly.

People share their impressions of how they see like a curtain in front of their eyes that blocks out the light; how individual areas can fall out, forming selective blindness (this occurs during pathological processes in the gray matter of the brain). There is also a loss of orientation in space, the inability to determine the shape or color of an object. Why does this happen and how to deal with temporary blindness?

Features of temporary blindness

Both eyes are not always affected; the situation when only one eye ceases to see is quite common. Loss of vision may appear again, but on a second organ; this often happens in older people with diseases of the cardiovascular system, atherosclerosis and vascular diseases.

Intermittent blindness is sometimes a harbinger of serious diseases such as heart attack or stroke.

Main causes of short-term blindness

Intracranial hypertension (increased pressure in the fluid that surrounds the brain) can cause vision loss.

Thrombosis of the vertebral arteries can also cause vision loss, because these vessels supply blood to the part of the brain that is responsible for vision.

When blood clots enter the eye arteries, they become blocked; the retina of the eye does not receive enough oxygen and nutrients and cannot function normally. As you know, the perception of surrounding objects occurs through the visual analyzer: light, refracted, hits the retina, building an image of what is happening there. This information goes further to the brain. When the retina does not work well enough, it results in loss of vision. After removal or resorption of the blood clot (thrombus), vision is completely restored.

Snow blindness is a phenomenon that occurs from exposure to bright light or looking at sunlit snow-covered expanses. A spasm of the ocular vessels occurs, blood temporarily does not enter the retina, this leads to short-term loss of vision lasting from several seconds to several minutes.

Hysterical loss of vision - people with a tendency to take everything to heart experience temporary blindness under severe stress and psycho-emotional shocks. The sensitivity of the eyelid skin increases, photophobia appears, and can last from several hours to months. Vision loss occurs in one or both eyes.

Migraine blindness is a rare manifestation of the underlying disease, headaches are accompanied by visual disturbances: blurry images, decreased visual acuity, blurred vision and temporary blindness - all these symptoms go side by side with ophthalmic migraine. At the same time, painful sensitivity to loud sounds, nausea, and dizziness increase. Staying still relieves symptoms.

Treatment of blindness

Only a doctor can prescribe complete treatment for you after detailed questioning and collection of symptoms. He will send you to take tests and perform some instrumental manipulations (for example, an electrocardiogram, if there is a suspicion of vascular disease and the risk of heart attack or ischemia).

But you can reduce the risk of repeated episodes of blindness yourself; folk remedies are used for this.

ethnoscience

For any organism, even those who do not suffer from visual impairment, it is useful to eat carrots in any form. But for greater benefit we need “squeeze all the juice out of it” literally: add 3 tablespoons of grated vegetable to a liter of water or milk and cook until tender.

Take a third of a glass of this healing decoction at night.

Drink an infusion of black currant leaves, it will relieve fatigue.

Drink every day three times after each meal, half a glass of infusion of lingonberry leaves, lemon balm, raspberry fruits, primrose and snakeweed rhizome, in equal proportions. Two spoons of herbs are poured into 0.7 liters of boiling water and allowed to brew for an hour.

Young nettle soup turns out to have a beneficial effect on vision. Try to cook it more often for one month.

Get fish oil and drink it three times a day.

Diversify your menu with fried or boiled liver.

If snow blindness occurs, isolate your eyes from further exposure to bright light sources; it is better to go to a dark place and lie down, covering your eyes with a bandage.

Eat more sweet peppers, gooseberries, cherries, zucchini, rose hips, peas, green onions, spinach, and beans. As you can see, the list of useful "visual" There are a lot of products, you can easily choose a dish to suit your taste.

Pour 3 tablespoons of rose hips into two glasses of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes. Cool for 8-12 hours and you are ready to use. The recommended dosage is a glass per day, 1/3 after each meal.

Prevention

If one or more cases of vision loss have occurred, you need to follow some simple tips:

Remember, temporary blindness is not an independent disease; it does not always happen from admiring the beauty of snow or the sun’s rays for too long; sometimes it is a harbinger of much more serious illnesses.

Spend a couple of hours on your health, consult a doctor after the incident, it’s better to worry once again and find out that everything is fine than to save a little time and then pay for a long time for the neglected consequences.