What Is An Ocular Stroke?

Most people understand when someone says their father had a heart attack (let´s call it a heart stroke for this discussion) or a stroke (we´ll also call it a brain attack). These attacks or strokes happened because of a sudden vascular occlusion or a blockage in a blood vessel that caused some tissue death, primarily from the lack of blood flow. These same vessels can also leak blood and we call these hemorrhagic strokes.

Now, let´s talk about an eye stroke or eye attack. An eye stroke can be the result of a blocked blood vessel or hemmorrhage, too. But it is localized within the retina. Your eye doctor classifies the kind of eye stroke by its location: a central retinal artery occlusion; a retinal vein occlusion; a branch retinal vein occlusion, or similar. Some retinal tissue dies as a result of an eye stroke, too. Management of this form of eye disease usually requires a thorough medical work-up to make sure blood pressure is under control and blood chemistry studies are within normal limits.