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Double Vision & Spinal Stenosis

Spine Health | Last Active: Jan 29 8:50pm | Replies (44)

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@jenniferhunter

@dablues I had my checkup with my opthalmologist yesterday, and I asked him if a cervical spine problem can cause double vision. His answer was yes, and that there can be a lot of different causes for double vision. He said to look up "Convergence insufficiency" which means that the eyes don't converge well and can see independently causing double vision or "Diploplia" instead of our normal binocular vision. I've been looking for literature about this and I found this which may interest you. Here is the link and a quoted paragraph from the publication from the Results discussion at the end of the literature.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0209710
"A cervical problem can cause an alteration of binocular vision

Three reflexes influence head, eye and postural stability [47], which depend on cervical afferents: the cervico-colic reflex (CCR), the cervico-ocular reflex (COR) and the tonic neck reflex (TNR). These reflexes carry out their functions together with others, being influenced by vestibular and visual input for coordinated stability of the head, eyes and posture. The COR works with the vestibular-ocular reflex (VOR) and the optokinetic reflex (OKR), acting on the extraocular muscles, to maintain stable vision in the retina during head movement. This reflex responds to proprioceptive signals that come from the deep muscles of the neck and the joint capsules from C1 to C3 to reach the vestibular nuclei [48]. A greater gain in COR has been demonstrated in whiplash patients [48]. In this context, an altered cervico-ocular reflex in subjects with neck pain could modify the tone of the extraocular muscles, leading to the destabilization of a phoria by altering the range fusional vergences and thus appearing a binocular alteration."

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Replies to "@dablues I had my checkup with my opthalmologist yesterday, and I asked him if a cervical..."

@jenniferhunter
Thank you for that great information.

@jenniferhunter

I have an appointment with my ophthalmologist on the 6th of February to talk once again about my diplopia. I'm told that there could be autonomic neuropathy involvement, but it's very difficult to get any kind of commitment to a certain diagnosis.

I've noticed that one eye sees, on its own, images to the right of where the other eye does.

Night driving is challenging because I see the two headlights with a second set above or below. And standing on the deck at night, I look at the lights of town, 7 miles away, and there is a perfect double set. It's hard to know which one is the actual light or the secondary one. Rather frustrating and disconcerting disorienting. I'm hoping the doctor will have something that explains the diplopia, and even more, a way to correct it.

Jim