Blindness - the inability to perceive visual stimuli - can be sudden or gradual, temporary or irreversible, partial or complete, as reported by the Internet publication for girls and women from 14 to 35 years old Pannochka. net Loss of vision can be the result of eye, neurological or systemic disease, trauma or the use of certain medications.

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

Possible causes of blindness include:.

Transient blindness, called amaurosis fugax.

With this disease, there can be repeated episodes of one-sided blindness, which last from a few seconds to several minutes. The rest of the time, vision is normal. The examination can reveal increased intraocular pressure and some other abnormalities in the affected eye.

Cataract.

Usually manifested as a painless, subtle and gradual impairment of vision clearness, preceded by blindness. The disease is progressive, is treated only surgically.

Contusion.

There is immediately a head injury. The patient may have blurred vision, double vision, loss of vision. These phenomena are usually temporary. Other signs include: headache, amnesia, impaired consciousness, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, irritability, drowsiness and aphasia.

Hereditary dystrophy of the cornea can cause loss of vision, which is accompanied by pain, photophobia, lacrimation and opacity of the cornea.

Diabetic retinopathy.

Puffiness and hemorrhages lead to visual impairment, which can progress, leading to complete blindness. Observed with uncontrolled diabetes mellitus.

Endophthalmitis.

This intraocular inflammation usually occurs after a through eye injury, eye surgery and t. Unilateral loss of vision is irreversible. Inflammation can even spread to the neighboring eye.

Glaucoma.

This disease causes progressive damage to the optic nerve, which leads to complete blindness. The reason for this is increased intraocular pressure. Sometimes the disease occurs in the form of acute closed-angle glaucoma - a condition requiring urgent treatment, since it can lead to complete blindness within 3-5 days. But more often the glaucoma proceeds years, not betraying itself in any way.

Shingles (Herpes zoster virus).

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

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

The accumulation of blood can disrupt the perception of light, reducing vision. Hyphema is usually the result of an eye injury.

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

eleven. Injury of the eye.

A sudden one-sided or two-sided blindness can occur due to an eye injury. The loss of vision in trauma can be partial or complete, temporary or permanent, depending on what structures were affected.

12. Atrophy of the optic nerve.

Degeneration, or atrophy of the optic nerve can cause narrowing of the field of vision, 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 leads to a severe, but temporary one-sided loss of vision. Inflammation is accompanied by a slow reaction of the pupil, visual field defects and pain around the eye, especially with the movement of the eyeball.

14. Paget's disease.

With this disease, the pressure of the bones on the cranial nerves leads to bilateral blindness, hearing loss, ringing in the ears, dizziness, headache. Characterized by a constant, severe pain in the bones.

15. The edema of the optic nerve disk is due to increased intracranial pressure. Can occur in acute and chronic form.

16. Pituitary Tumor.

As the tumor grows, visual impairment can progress in patients, up to complete double-blindness. There may be nystagmus, ptosis, eye movement restriction, double vision, headache.

17th. Retinal artery occlusion.

This is a painless, extremely dangerous condition, causing a one-sided loss of vision, which can be complete or partial. After several hours without treatment, blindness becomes irreversible, so thrombosis of the retina is treated immediately.

18. Retinal detachment.

In this severe condition, painless, sudden loss of vision can be observed. Urgent treatment is required.

19. Rift Valley Fever.

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

20. Retinal degeneration causes a painless loss of vision. Blindness can occur relatively quickly, or develop gradually. Visual acuity can be much worse at night.

21. Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.

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

22. Giant cell arteritis.

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

23. Trachoma (chlamydial infection).

This rare disease can initially cause different severity of visual impairment in combination with a "minor" infection, similar to bacterial conjunctivitis. Symptoms include: eyelid inflammation, pain, photophobia, lacrimation, discharge from the eye, etc..

24. Uveitis - inflammation of the uveal tract (choroid of the eye) - may cause one-sided vision loss. Uveitis can cause pain, a pronounced injection of conjunctival vessels, photophobia, blurred vision, visual impairment.

25. Hemorrhage in the vitreous body.

This condition can be the result of eye trauma, eye tumors or systemic diseases (especially diabetes mellitus, hypertension, sickle cell anemia, leukemia). Hemorrhage can cause sudden blindness and redness of the eye. Loss of vision can be irreversible.

Medicines that can cause loss of vision include the following:.

Digoxin and analogues.

Indomethacin.

Ethambutol.

Quinine.

One common cause of blindness is the random intake of methyl alcohol (methanol), which can damage the optic nerve, causing irreversible loss of vision.

Causes of vision loss in children.

Western specialists emphasize that in children who complain of a slowly progressive decline in vision, such serious diseases as glioma of the optic nerve (benign tumor) and retinoblastoma (malignant retinal tumor). Congenital rubella and syphilis can cause vision loss in infants. Retinopathy of prematurity is a serious disease that can lead to loss of vision in premature infants.

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

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