Clinical Significance and Pathogenesis of Visual Impairment in Parkinson's Disease

Visual impairments are not the core symptoms in PD, but gain in significance when accompanied by exacerbation of the primary symptoms, since visual impairments reduce compensation and adaptation the patient to motor disturbances. Most frequent complaints include fuzzy vision, photophobia, asthenopia (with eye fatigue, often accompanied by headache and blurred vision). Patients with PD often find it difficult to read and to orientate themselves in the dusk or a scarcely lit room [1,2]. However, when patients seek for ophthalmological help, routine examinations often do not reveal any eye disorder, while neurologists do not pay needful attention to such complaints, because they are not familiar enough with Parkinsonian visual disturbances.