The following symptoms and complaints may indicate ablatio retinae (retinal detachment):
Predromal symptoms (forewarning symptoms).
- Photopsia (flashes of light; flashes):
- Often arcuate brief flashes, usually perceived laterally or at the top of the visual field
- Usually only visible in the dark or twilight
- Amplified during violent movement of the head (head turning), extreme eye movements or vibration
- Camptopsia – wavy vision
Symptoms of retinal detachment
- Scotoma – circumscribed visual field loss.
- Metamorphopsia (distorted vision)
- Mouches volantes (“mosquito vision”)
- Shadows in the field of view
- Sooty rain – sudden appearance of dense black or red spots in the field of view.
- Visual acuity reduction (deterioration of visual acuity).
However, retinal detachment can be asymptomatic for a long time; only when the macula is reached the problem becomes visible.
Notice. The sharpest vision (finest spatial resolution) occurs in the fovea centralis, a component of the macula lutea (macula; yellow spot) that contains only cones (responsible for color perception).
