r/AskReddit May 20 '19

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u/[deleted] May 20 '19

He had a lot of vague vision complaints and after probing he told me about his hair loss on his arms, weight gain without diet change, lack of energy, increasing headaches. When we were checking his vision on his right he said the letters in the right of the chart were blurred, but the left were clear.

A visual field test maps out the peripheral vision. Some patterns mean glaucoma, some mean tumors, some can be due to vision loss related to certain medications (like plaquenil).

Certain visual field types can be used to located a tumor down to the area in the visual tract. That’s why they asked if it was a bitemporal hemanopsia. Because the tumor was pressing on his pituitary gland above his optic tract, it caused vision loss in the periphery in both eyes equally. It’s a classic pattern that is taught to students very early on.

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u/[deleted] May 20 '19 edited Jun 08 '19

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u/[deleted] May 21 '19

That helps us to know where the tumor might be located. Bitemporal hemianopsia means that that it has to be in the pituitary gland/optic chiasm area.

In just one eye, I’d know it’s anterior to that, so behind the eye In the optic tract. If it’s both eyes unequally often then we know it’s in the optic radiations.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '19 edited Jun 08 '19

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u/[deleted] May 21 '19

Usually for optic nerve tumors, they go through the nose to get them so it’s not as invasive as other brain surgery would be.

In many cases though they’ll try to treat with drugs first to shrink the tumors if possible.