What are the symptoms of nystagmus?

Many cases of nystagmus are congenital, so many people are quite unfamiliar with this disease and do not know what its symptoms are. Experts say the most common symptoms of this disease are involuntary, continuous, and relatively regular eye twitching or swinging (nystagmus) and amblyopia.

1. Involuntary, continuous , and relatively regular eye movements or swaying (nystagmus): Congenital nystagmus is generally uncontrollable, so-called involuntary. However, in some cases, nystagmus can be alleviated or even disappear when the attention is focused. In some other cases, nystagmus is alleviated or disappears when accommodation and convergence are used for close viewing, indicating that accommodation and convergence or near reflex has an inhibitory effect on nystagmus. In clinical practice, we can see that many patients do not see vibrations near them, but see vibrations far away. This is the mechanism.

However, some patients are the opposite. Some patients even show that the more nervous they are and the more focused they are, the heavier or more obvious their nystagmus becomes. There are also some very rare cases where the nystagmus does not occur when looking at distant objects but does occur when looking at close objects, or the nystagmus is lighter when looking at distant objects but heavier when looking at close objects.

2. Amblyopia: Congenital nystagmus-induced amblyopia is almost always binocular (except for unilateral or asymmetric congenital nystagmus). If there are no complications such as strabismus or refractive errors, the degree of amblyopia in both eyes is mostly similar. According to statistics, amblyopia cases account for 86.7%, of which those with a visual acuity of 0.1 or monocular visual acuity of less than 0.1, namely severe amblyopia, account for 20.2% (monocular visual acuity of less than 0.1 accounts for 1.3%), those with a visual acuity of 0.2-0.5, namely moderate amblyopia, account for 52.3%, and those with a visual acuity of 0.6-0.8, namely mild amblyopia, account for 14.2%. The proportion of people with visual acuity of 0.9 or above was 13.3%. This shows that the impact of congenital nystagmus on vision is universal.

3. Compensatory head position: The compensatory head position of congenital nystagmus is mainly manifested as left and right deviation of the face. Only a few cases show elevation or retraction of the mandible, and in a few cases the head may tilt to the left or right. According to statistics, 66.2% of people with congenital nystagmus have compensatory head position, among which horizontal beating type nystagmus is the most common, accounting for 88.1% of those with compensatory head position. The compensatory head position of jerking nystagmus is almost always manifested as a face turning to the fast side, with only a few exceptions.

The above is a complete introduction to the symptoms of congenital nystagmus. I hope that patients can have more understanding of this disease. In addition, a small number of patients with congenital nystagmus may show frequent blinking. The more they pay attention to the target, the more frequently they blink. The blinking is both fast and frequent, which is obviously related to mental tension. The frequency of blinking is proportional to the frequency of nystagmus. When the mental tension disappears or when you are not looking, the frequent blinking action will disappear but the nystagmus will still exist. This is the point that distinguishes it from eyelid nystagmus.