fullcortex.net

( 1999 )

What can We tell you about diplopia?

Diplopia is a medical term for double vision: the perception of two images when looking at a single object. The double images may appear side by side or one above the other. If the separation of the two images is very slight, the object may appear more blurred than double. Usually, the second image disappears if one eye is closed, although people with a cataract may have a sense of blurry, double vision only in the affected eye.
Double vision has many possible causes. There are six muscles attached to each eyeball that are controlled by nerve fibers from the brain. An imbalance of the eye muscles can cause the eyes to deviate (known as strabismus), causing double vision.
Diplopia may be present at birth, or occur as a complication of an acquired problem affecting the eyeball’s orbit, such as in Grave’s disease (exophthalmic goiter). Damage to one or more nerves that control the eye muscles can cause diplopia in persons with multiple sclerosis, the neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis, traumatic brain injury, strokes, brain tumors, brain aneurysms and other conditions.
The onset of double vision may be a warning sign of a serious underlying problem, and should never be ignored. A thorough medical and neurologic examination usually is able to determine the cause and approach to treatment. If the underlying problem cannot be corrected, it may be possible to relieve the problem with glasses with a special type of corrective lens, or use of an eye patch that occludes the vision in one eye.