How a Concussion Can Affect Eyesight

While many people think a concussion is only a minor injury, it is classified as a traumatic brain injury and should be taken seriously. Often occurring in contact sports or when people suffer auto accidents or falls, a concussion involves the brain actually moving around inside your skull. While this will likely result in you having a headache and possibly some nausea, few people realize a concussion can also affect their eyesight. As for how, here are some common ways.

Post-Trauma Vision Syndrome

If you have persistent visual problems following a concussion, doctors may diagnose you with post-trauma vision syndrome. Happening in people who suffer even mild concussions, PTVS involves various issues that may alter your eyesight temporarily. However, when a concussion is very severe, people can experience total blindness for a period of time.

Double Vision

Most common with severe concussions, double vision is often a sign that a brain injury may be worse than originally thought, and thus should always be taken very seriously. An extremely disorienting condition, double vision results in dizziness, reduced hand-eye coordination, and difficulty walking, reading, and balancing.

Accommodative Dysfunction

Referring to a person having difficulty switching their focus from nearby objects to those located at a distance, accommodative dysfunction is something you may experience following any type of concussion. Hard to diagnose because your eyes will otherwise appear healthy, it will often dissipate on its own over time. Caused by an injury to the part of the brain stem that controls focusing, it rarely shows itself on an MRI.

Convergence Insufficiency

If you are diagnosed with this, it means your eyes will have difficulty establishing and maintaining binocular vision that is most often used when reading or working at a computer. In essence, your eyes do not want to work together and are often tired and achy when trying to do these tasks.

Sensitivity to Light

Finally, your eyes may be very sensitive to light after a concussion. When the brain suffers a blow, it becomes much harder for it to adjust to different levels of brightness, though researchers are now quite sure why.

Should you suffer these or other problems with your eyesight following a blow to the head, always seek medical treatment as soon as possible.