Elucidating the visual phenomena in epilepsy: A mini review

Epilepsy is one of the most recognizable neurological diseases, globally. Epilepsy may be accompanied by various complications, including vision impairments, which may severely impact one's quality of life. These visual phenomena may occur in the preictal, ictal and/or postictal periods of seizures. Examples of epilepsy associated visual phenomena include visual aura, visual hallucinations, transient visual loss and amaurosis (blindness). These ophthalmologic signs/symptoms of epilepsy may be temporary or permanent and may vary depending of the type of epilepsy and location of the seizure foci (occipital or temporal lobe). Some visual phenomena may even be utilized to diagnose the epilepsy type, although solely depending on visual symptoms for diagnosis may lead to mistreatment. Some antiseizure medications (ASMs) may also contribute to certain visual disturbances, thereby impacting its therapeutic efficiency for patients with epilepsy (PWE). Although the development of vi-sual comorbidities has been observed diversely among PWE, there may still be a lack of understanding on their relevance and manifestation in epilepsy, which may contribute to the rate of misdiagnosis and the current scarcity in therapeutic relieve. Therefore, this mini narrative review aimed to discuss the common epilepsy associated visual phenomena, based on the available literature. This review also showcased the relationship between the type of visual complications and the site of seizure onset, as well as compared the visual phenomena between occipital lobe epilepsy and temporal lobe epilepsy. Evaluation of these findings may be crucial in reducing the risk of permanent seizure/epilepsy related vision deficits among PWE.

Automated summary

Epilepsy is a common neurological disease that can cause various complications, including vision impairments. These visual phenomena may occur before, during, or after seizures and vary depending on the type and location of epilepsy. Some antiseizure medications may also contribute to visual disturbances. A lack of understanding about the relevance and manifestation of visual complications in epilepsy can lead to misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment. This review aims to discuss common epilepsy-associated visual phenomena and their relationship to seizure onset site, with the goal of reducing the risk of permanent vision deficits among epilepsy patients.