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Stroke

Head injury and resultant `visual migraine`

06/25/2008

Question:

I fell a month and a half ago, hitting the left side of my head pretty hard...on a rock.

Three days later, I had a flashing neon-green light in the periphery of my left eye (open or shut, lighted room or dark). Went to opthalmologist, who dianosed it as a visual migraine.

Today, I began having geometric, black and white, revolving "thingies" in my field of vision, which blocked the area of the page of the magazine I was reading.

Any idea what this might be? (My dad died after having TSAs, of atherosclerosis. There was hx of heart attack in his family. Mother had retinal degeration.) I am a 65-year-old female, taking Zoloft for depression and Trazodone for insomnia. I`d appreciate knowing whether any of these things may be related, or what kind of specialist I should see.

Thanks for whatever help you can give me.

Answer:

The possibilities for your visual complaints include Migraine aura, TIA (warning sign for stroke) or seizure. Hence, the other two etiologies (TIA and seizure) must be excluded before we can say it is migraine aura. I recommend consultation sooner rather than later by a Neurologist.

Regards.

For more information:

Go to the Stroke health topic, where you can:

Response by:

Yousef Mohammad, MD, MSc Yousef Mohammad, MD, MSc
Assistant Professor
Director, Stroke Fellowship Program
College of Medicine
The Ohio State University