Neuro-ophthalmology is an ophthalmic subspecialty that addresses the relationship between the eye and the brain, specifically disorders of the optic nerve, orbit, and brain, associated with visual symptoms. Common symptoms in neuro-ophthalmic disease include:
- Visual loss
- Visual disturbance
- Diplopia
- Unequal pupils
- Eyelid and Facial spasms
Neuro-ophthalmologists typically attend to diseases of the afferent visual system (most often involving the optic nerve), the efferent visual system (that controls eye movements), or the pupillary reflexes.
Some commonly seen diseases, that a neuro-ophthalmologist may see, include optic neuritis, optic neuropathy, optic disc edema, ocular myasthenia gravis, brain tumors or stroke affecting vision, idiopathic intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri, unexplained visual loss, headaches, and double vision.
Numerous diagnostic services are available including:
- Visual fields
- Fundus photography
- Ultrasound - orbital and optic nerve
- Optical coherence tomography (OCT)
- Fluorescein angiography
Therapeutic procedures and services available include:
- Inpatient medical treatment
- Prism treatment
- Optic nerve sheath decompression
- Orbital decompression (including for thyroid eye disease)
- Botulinum injections for blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm
- Temporal artery biopsy
