Conditions We Treat

Neuro-ophthalmologists diagnose and treat many different types of vision problems. Some of the most common include:

• Pseudotumor cerebri or idiopathic intracranial hypertension, which happens when the pressure inside your skull increases for no obvious reasons. The pressure can cause swelling of the optic nerve(s) resulting in vision loss.
• Pituitary tumors, which are a growth arising from the pituitary gland. They can cause eye problems because of the pressure on the optic nerve or chiasm (crossing of optic nerves).
• Double vision or diplopia – seeing two images of the same thing.  Typically, one image goes away when covering one eye or the other ("binocular diplopia").
• Pupillary abnormalities, which include uneven pupil sizes, reduced response to light or convergence and being unresponsive to light.
• Temporal arteritis or giant cell arteritis, when the arteries at the temples and in the brain become inflamed. It can cause severe headaches, double vision and/or acute loss of vision.
• Ischemic optic neuropathy (ION), a condition in which blood does not flow normally to the optic nerve. It can cause lasting damage and loss of vision.
• Monocular visual loss –  a sudden loss of vision in one eye due to a temporary lack of blood to your eye.
• Visual loss after stroke often causes a "homonymous hemianopia" when you only see one half of your visual field, either left or right, in each eye.
• Visual difficulties associated with multiple sclerosis such as optic neuritis, which causes pain with eye movement, blurred vision, diming of vision or loss of color vision.
• Vision difficulties associated with myasthenia gravis, which can cause weakness of eye muscles resulting in blurred or double vision and drooping of eyelids.
• Inflammatory or infectious diseases affecting the optic nerve
• Nutritional and toxic damage to the optic nerve
• Acquired forms of nystagmus where the eyes make repetitive, uncontrolled movements. These develop later in childhood or adulthood and may be due to central nervous system disorders.

Neurodiagnostics

In addition to a thorough medical history and detailed visual and oculomotor examination, diagnostic testing for conditions can include:

• Visual field testing measures how much vision you have in each eye and can be used to determine vision loss or blind spots.
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT) uses infrared light waves to take pictures of your retina. It can also be used to determine disorders of the optic nerve.
• Fundus photography takes high-resolution photographs of the back of the eye including the optic nerve and retina.

Treatments

Treatments vary according to the condition and each patient’s situation. The most common treatments include:

• Medications used to treat conditions such as increased intracranial hypertension, temporal arteritis and myasthenia gravis.
• Prism lenses help individuals with double vision by aligning the two images

Our experts will also determine if a referral to other vision specialists is required, such as retina or glaucoma specialists.