Symptoms

If there is a circulatory disorder of the retina of the eye, severe visual damage and even blindness can occur. These pronounced and severe visual impairments occur mainly when the blood supply to the retina and/or the blood flow to the optic nerve is disturbed. As the disease progresses, it can also lead to circulatory disorders in the whole body and thus cause strokes, heart attacks and also the infestation of the other eye.

The most important symptom, however, is painlessness. The eyesight decreases more and more, but is completely painless for the person concerned. One can see differences in the different affected regions.

If a sudden drastic painless visual impairment occurs in the eye, which can affect only a part of the visual field, an artery that supplies the sensory cells of the retina is usually affected. If the upper or lower half of the visual field is mainly affected, the optic nerve and its supplying arteries are usually affected by a circulatory disorder.In addition to the arteries, the veins (laxative vessels) can also be affected by an occlusion. Patients usually notice this because a kind of veil covers the field of vision.

The rays of light from our surroundings, which enter the eye through the pupil, hit the retina at the back of the eye. There, cells perceive the light rays and then send a signal via the optic nerve to the visual cortex. The brain then uses these individual signals to compose an image.

If the cells of the retina are damaged by a circulatory disorder, the brain receives an incomplete image. This manifests itself in visual disturbances such as blind spots. Sometimes the brain interprets something into these blind spots, which suddenly makes you see something that does not exist.

Flickering of the eyes, also known as flicker scotoma, is a visual disorder in which there are failures or disturbances in perception in the visual field. For example, flashes of light can spread or a hissing sound is produced, which is reminiscent of snow flurries. These failures are particularly dangerous in road traffic, for example, when driving a car.

The circulatory disturbance of the eye, which can cause small defects on the retina, is a possible cause of eye flickering. Stress, a lack of nutrients, diseases of the optic nerve and disturbances in brain function can also trigger a flickering scotoma. More about this under:

Flickering eyes – Is that dangerous?

Lightning can have various causes, such as migraines.

Especially in migraine with aura, which is a special form of migraine, patients may initially perceive light impulses. Mostly the flashes travel before strong headaches, typical for migraines, begin. If mechanical irritation is applied to the retina, this is usually due to scarring in the eye or shrinkage of the vitreous body due to age.

Here, the reaction is not pain, as is usually the case, but rather the emission of light impulses, such as flashes. If an ophthalmologist is not consulted as soon as possible, a retinal detachment can occur, which poses an enormous danger to the eye and vision. If the causes remain untreated, the patient may lose his or her eyesight.

If a hole is made in the retina, this is similar to a retinal detachment and must be examined and treated by the ophthalmologist as soon as possible. Other causes can be that the blood pressure is too high or too low, high intraocular pressure, increased pressure on the eye and circulatory problems in the brain. In case of a circulatory disorder of the brain, especially if there is a reduced blood circulation, the patient usually faints.

This often does not happen immediately, but with an intermediate phase ,in which the affected persons perceive hallucinations, which can also be of optical nature and cause lightning. Many of these causes are very dangerous for the eye and vision. For example, in the case of a retinal detachment, it is important to react as quickly as possible in order to avoid blindness or permanent visual damage and the resulting impairments.

The retina is a very complex and important part of the human eye. In addition to flashes, there are other light phenomena in the eye such as bright zigzag patterns, bright spots of light, light rings around light sources and bright spots. All these light phenomena can occur in the course of one of the above mentioned causes.

If one sees double images, this is usually due to a misregulation of the image processing. Images are sent from both eyes to the visual cortex in the brain. There they are usually processed in such a way that they are perceived as only one image.

When seeing double images, the cause is therefore usually not a circulatory disorder of the eye itself, rather the visual cortex is affected by such a circulatory disorder. Migraine occurs in several phases in many patients. Before the actual migraine-typical headaches occur, about 15 to 20% of those affected already notice visual disturbances.

These visual disturbances are also called aura. For example, a so-called scotoma develops, in which the affected person can no longer perceive a certain spot in the field of vision. Sometimes even a whole half of the visual field is affected. False perceptions such as seeing additional structures are also possible. This topic might also be of interest to you:

Migraine therapy