BLINDNESS

BLINDNESS: Excerpt from Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs

Ask the following questions:

1. Is it transient? Transient blindness may occur in transient ischemic attacks, epilepsy, migraine, and hypertension.
2. Is it a sudden onset? The sudden onset of blindness may occur in optic neuritis, retinal vein thrombosis, central retinal artery occlusion, vitreous hemorrhage, detached retina, carotid artery thrombosis, temporal arteritis, injuries to the optic nerve, retrobulbar neuritis, fracture of the skull, glaucoma, posterior cerebral artery occlusion, multiple sclerosis, and hysteria.
3. Is it unilateral or bilateral? Unilateral blindness may occur in glaucoma, vitreous hemorrhage, optic neuritis, retinal vein thrombosis, central retinal artery thrombosis, carotid artery thrombosis, temporal arteritis, injury to the optic nerve, fractured skull, brain tumors, retinoblastomas, and sphenoid ridge meningiomas. Bilateral blindness may occur in posterior cerebral artery occlusion, pituitary tumors, retinitis pigmentosa, hereditary optic atrophy, uveitis, toxic amblyopia, cataracts, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and iritis.
4. Is there papilledema? The presence of papilledema should make one suspect optic neuritis, retinal vein thrombosis, and space-occupying lesions of the brain.
5. Are there abnormalities on ophthalmoscopic examination? Besides papilledema, there may be changes on the ophthalmoscopic examination in iritis, glaucoma, papillitis from optic neuritis, retinal vein thrombosis, central retinal artery occlusion, vitreous hemorrhage, detached retina, and retinoblastoma.

DIAGNOSTIC WORKUP

Referral to an ophthalmologist is usually the first step in a good workup. If one is not available, a careful eye examination including slit lamp examination, visual acuity evaluation, tonometry, and visual field studies should be done. If these are unrevealing, a referral to an ophthalmologist or neurologist should be made without further delay. Additional studies would include a CT scan or MRI of the brain and orbits, carotid scans, spinal tap, VEP studies, and four-vessel cerebral angiography. An EEG would be useful in diagnosing hysterical blindness and malingering.

Book Source Details

• Book Title: Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs
• Author(s): R. Douglas Collins
• Year of Publication: 2003
• Copyright Details: Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs, Copyright © 2003 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

More About Color blindness

• Back to disease: Color blindness: Introduction
• Next Book Extract About Color blindness: EYE PAIN (Differential Diagnosis in Primary Care)
• More Book Extracts: All Online Books for Color blindness

More Medical Textbooks Online about Color blindness

Review other book chapters online related to Color blindness:

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

More About This Book: Title: Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs Authors: R. Douglas Collins Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Copyright: 2003 ISBN: 0-7817-3805-9

 » Next page: EYE PAIN (Differential Diagnosis in Primary Care)

Rate This Website

What do you think about the features of this website? Take our user survey and have your say:

Website User Survey

Medical Tools & Articles:

Next articles:

• EYE PAIN (Differential Diagnosis in Primary Care)
• BLURRED VISION, BLINDNESS, AND SCOTOMATA (Differential Diagnosis in Primary Care)
• Eye pain (Handbook of Signs & Symptoms (Third Edition))
• Scotoma (Handbook of Signs & Symptoms (Third Edition))
• Scotoma (Professional Guide to Signs & Symptoms (Fifth Edition))

Tools & Services:

• Bookmark this page
• Symptom Search
• Symptom Checker
• Medical Dictionary
• Give your feedback

Medical Articles:

• Disease & Treatments Search
• Misdiagnosis Center
• Full list of interesting articles

Forums & Message Boards

• Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
• I cannot get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for my condition?
• See all the Boards.

Enter your search terms Submit search form
Search The Web Search wrongdiagnosis.com

Common Health Mistakes

Symptom
Checker

Search Specialists by State and City