The dangers of retinal artery blockage

The harm caused by retinal artery blockage is relatively large. It belongs to the terminal artery of the central artery. After blockage, it often leads to acute ischemia of the retina, which can cause serious deterioration of vision. This is also an important cause of blindness. Retinal hemorrhage is often caused by embolism. For example, if teenagers have migraines or arterial occlusive diseases, they may cause this harm.

The dangers of retinal artery blockage

1. Retinal hemorrhage Retinal hemorrhage is not a typical change of retinal artery occlusion. Occasionally there are small bleeding spots, especially near the optic disc, which are mostly caused by capillary hypoxia and leakage. If the bleeding is large, central retinal vein occlusion should be considered. 2. Secondary glaucoma Recent literature reports that the incidence of neovascular glaucoma is 15% to 20%. It may be due to long-term retinal hypoperfusion, ischemia, and hypoxia. Or combined with venous obstruction, carotid artery stenosis, etc.

Causes

The causes of retinal artery occlusion can be mainly summarized as embolism, arterial wall changes and thrombosis, vasospasm or a combination of these factors. Clinically, 90% of patients can be diagnosed with some relevant systemic conditions.

Arterial occlusive diseases in young patients are often associated with migraine, abnormal coagulation mechanisms, trauma, heart disease, sickle cell blood disease and eye abnormalities, such as buried drusen and pre-opipapillary arterial rings.

Clinical manifestations

When the central retinal artery is completely blocked, vision is completely lost immediately or within a few minutes. Some patients have prodromal symptoms, painless transient blindness, which can be relieved after a few minutes. After repeated attacks, vision suddenly deteriorates rapidly and severely.

The visual acuity of most eyes is reduced to the ability to move hands or count fingers in front of the eyes. A narrow area of ​​light perception is often retained in the temporal periphery of the visual field. About 4% of patients have no light perception, dilated pupils, and no direct response to light. This type of eye that cannot sense light may also have ciliary circulation block and optic nerve blood supply disorder in addition to central retinal artery occlusion.