Flashes in the eyes are a false sensation in which a person sees luminous objects of various sizes and shapes. As a rule, these are flickering spots, lightning, balls, sparks.
Lightning before the eyes is not an independent disease. This is a symptom that, depending on the circumstances, may indicate harmless eye fatigue or cervical osteochondrosis, or a serious eye catastrophe - retinal detachment. It is one of the most common complaints of patients and, as a rule, is accompanied by another symptom - spots in front of the eyes, the appearance of a “curtain”.
Fig. 1 Posterior vitreous detachment (PVD) is one of the common causes of lightning in the eyes (not dangerous)
1.General information
There are symptoms so universal, informative and, at the same time, difficult to describe verbally that the doctor and the patient sometimes have to make great efforts to correctly understand each other. In neuropsychiatric practice, such situations probably arise more often than in other medical fields. Indeed, widespread complaints that a patient has a “headache”, “feels bad” or “insomnia” may seem exhaustive and explain everything, although in fact such formulations acquire diagnostic significance only after numerous clarifications.
A huge number of nuances and options are implied, in particular, by the concept of “floaters before the eyes” (“floating circles”, “transparent spots”, “black dots”, etc.). Separated from other existing symptoms, these visual sensations in themselves do not even indicate which doctor should be consulted: an ophthalmologist, a neurologist, an endocrinologist, or perhaps several specialists at the same time. Only in the context of other, more specific health disorders, the situation gradually becomes clearer. It should be emphasized that such an ephemeral, obviously illusory and difficult to describe phenomenon, like foreign objects in the field of vision, most often serves as an alarm bell about latently growing problems, sometimes very serious ones.
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Why do flies fly before my eyes?
Details Author: LDC Neuron Published: November 10, 2015
Everyone has probably encountered such a phenomenon as dark or bright flashing spots before their eyes? Which occur during rapid movements, after a sleepless night, overexertion, overwork, after a hard day, and sometimes simply for no reason.
But there is always a reason and it needs to be established in order to remove serious pathologies with blood vessels or eyes. More often this problem is encountered in adulthood. Sometimes even vision may not decrease, but the spots become more and more numerous.
Why do flies fly before my eyes? Let's try to figure it out today.
2. Reasons
There are so many possible reasons for the appearance of “eye floaters” that they have to be divided into broad categories.
- ophthalmological pathology (various types of clots and sediments in the vitreous body, incipient retinal detachment, microscopic hemorrhage, etc.);
- shock reaction before loss of consciousness in severe closed injury (with rupture of internal organs and cavitary hemorrhage) or concussion;
- diabetic retinopathy (retinal dystrophy in the later stages of diabetes mellitus, i.e. the very case when a multidisciplinary approach is required);
- anemia (deficiency of hemoglobin in the blood);
- some complications during gestation (gestation);
- intoxication with certain toxic substances that are active in relation to the optic nerve (in this case, along with “floaters”, other visual disorders are noted, for example, diplopia - double vision of actually observed objects).
Almost all other causes are somehow related to the blood supply to the brain and, thus, belong to the field of neurology. The fact is that the eye is, in fact, just a lens, an optical intermediary between the outside world and our consciousness. Visual perception, i.e. analysis and comprehension of visual information is a function of the brain, not the eye. Therefore, brain dysfunctions, oxygen starvation and/or process diseases, especially of the occipital localization (where the visual centers of the cortex are located), can be manifested by sensations of “foreign bodies” in the visual field. Such conditions include, in particular:
- migraine (floaters before the eyes are one of the warning signs of an attack);
- osteochondrosis of the cervical spine, complicating cerebrovascularization (blood supply to the brain);
- sharp fluctuations in blood pressure (both increase and decrease), which inevitably affects the nutrition of the brain;
- pre-stroke condition, TIA (transient ischemic attack) or stroke (acute cerebrovascular accident), which is accompanied by a number of additional symptoms (numbness, speech impairment, etc.);
- tumor process in the occipital regions of the brain;
- dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (dyscirculatory encephalopathy, vegetative-vascular dystonia);
- extreme external conditions (thin air, heat in the desert, etc.).
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Prevention
To get rid of flies and prevent their occurrence, it is recommended to reconsider your lifestyle. It is important to pay increased attention to a healthy diet (in particular, consuming enough vitamins).
- Dosed physical activity is of great importance (at least morning exercises and regular walks in the evening should become regular). It has been reliably established that physical inactivity is one of the causes of early visual impairment.
- Try to spend as little time as possible in front of the TV or monitor. Eye fatigue very often provokes the appearance of floaters.
- And, of course, it is necessary to give up nicotine and alcohol consumption. Bad habits negatively affect the condition of all organs and systems, and can cause problems with blood pressure even in young people.
- Simple eye exercises are very useful. When flies appear (or to prevent their appearance), sharply move your gaze to the left and then to the right. Then move your eyeballs up and down. These movements contribute to the redistribution of fluid, due to which the floaters will move outside the visual field.
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3. Symptoms and diagnosis
The term “floaters before the eyes” (or “in the eyes”) is a common one and is heard often, although in reality these visual images, as a rule, do not even remotely resemble insects. Upon careful questioning, patients describe something like floating spots, clouds, translucent clots, threads, bacteria, dots, sparkles, etc. Such objects can be motionless or, after sudden movements, smoothly fall down until they go out of sight (more typical for the presence of real clots in the vitreous body); black networks or “veils” of black dots often accompany retinal degeneration and detachment, while translucent circles, ovals or balls that subtly escape from the central visual axis usually indicate vascular problems. In general, in self-diagnosis of the condition it is very important to monitor:
- Is the sharpness and clarity of vision impaired at such moments (far, near, at any distance), do blind spots (scotomas) appear in the visual field, is there a feeling of fullness, pain, etc.;
- what factors are associated with the appearance of such images (physical activity, fatigue, medication, etc.);
- in which situations they worsen and in which they disappear (excitement, peace, awakening, etc.);
- what additional symptoms, usual or unusual, appear together with the “flare spots” (headache and/or dizziness, speech and/or coordination of movements are impaired, lack of air, pulse quickens, heart beats intensely or hurts, etc.).
For diagnostic purposes, a neurologist will most likely prescribe a consultation with an ophthalmologist, and vice versa. The blood supply to the eyeballs and cerebrovascularity, the functioning of neuronal pathways, metabolic processes in the brain and visual system are one way or another interconnected, so cross-diagnosis is very important and necessary.
In the most acute of the situations described above (polytrauma with internal bleeding, stroke, poisoning), the clinical picture is usually obvious, severe and polysymptomatic; it simply does not leave time for a detailed analysis of visual sensations. However, during the initial visit against the background of satisfactory general health, to establish the true causes, a fairly lengthy in-depth examination may be required, incl. instrumental methods (MRI, CT, EEG, etc.), laboratory tests, consultations with specialized specialists. At the same time, treatment of harmless and harmless (seemingly) “floaters in the eyes” often makes it possible to identify serious and dangerous diseases in the early stages, the insidiousness of which lies precisely in the duration of the latent, asymptomatic stage of the course (for example, arterial hypertension or slow growing tumor).
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Types of violation
Depending on the symptoms the patient experiences, a preliminary diagnosis can be made. Flickering varies in type, strength or intensity. It can be multi-colored, black and white, zigzag, in the form of spots, stripes or black flies. The most common:
- Colored circles and rainbow halos in front of the eyes around light sources, combined with tearing. If they are not accompanied by photophobia, this may be a sign of developing cataracts.
- Multi-colored spots with redness of the eyes and pain occur with fatigue and increased fundus pressure.
- Zigzag spots with a sharp change in head position, sneezing and coughing can occur with iron deficiency anemia, during pregnancy, with a foreign body in the eye, with incorrect selection of glasses or damage to blood vessels. Sometimes accompanied by pain.
- Glowing flashes of light and bright spots indicate problems with the spine, disruption of brain function, and high blood pressure.
- Laser glare combined with swelling accompany retinal problems. The cause may be retinal detachment, photoburn, or the use of low-quality lenses.
- The appearance of ripples in the eyes occurs with osteochondrosis or eye diseases.
4.Treatment
Based on the diagnostic results, treatment will, of course, not be “floaters” as such (since this is only a symptom), but the causes that caused them: vertebrological, neurological, endocrine, oncological, cardiovascular or ophthalmological pathology. In this case, there is no way to even review all possible therapeutic strategies. Treatment in modern medicine is prescribed according to the etiopathogenetic principle (the maximum possible elimination of the root causes and risk conditions of the disease), taking into account many individual characteristics. It is much more important to understand the non-randomness and interconnectedness of all processes occurring in the body, incl. visual, and do not miss precious time to “build up” before visiting the doctor.
Symptoms of atrophy
One of the main signs of incipient optic nerve atrophy is an uncorrectable decrease in visual acuity and quality: neither glasses nor contact lenses can compensate for the decrease in visual functions caused by the atrophic process in the nerve. Rapidly progressive optic atrophy can result in complete, incurable blindness within months or even days. With partial atrophy, organic degradation and increasing functional failure of the visual organs stop at a certain level and stabilize (the reasons for such stabilization often also remain unclear).
Visual fields are narrowed, as a rule, due to loss of peripheral (“side”) vision – the so-called tunnel vision syndrome. Color vision disorders concern mainly red-green and yellow-blue gradients of the general spectrum. Scotomas may appear, i.e. blind spots in the field of relatively intact vision.
Fig. 4 Normal vision and with damage to the optic nerve (glaucomatous atrophy)
Quite typical for optical neuropathy is the so-called. pupillary defect: weakening of the pupil's reaction to light while maintaining overall consistency of pupillary reactions. The pupillary defect can be unilateral or detected in both eyes simultaneously. Whatever symptoms accompany optic nerve atrophy, they should only be detected during a professional ophthalmoscopic examination and interpreted by a qualified ophthalmologist.