A 65 year old woman previously diagnosed with primary open angle glaucoma presented for ongoing care. She was using latanoprost in each eye and had bilateral selective laser trabeculoplasty performed two years earlier. Her medical history was significant for hypertension, elevated cholesterol, and arthritis.  Her vision was 20/20 OD and 20/25 OS. She had an inferior retinal nerve fiber layer defect in the right eye and significant superior rim damage in the left eye. Threshold perimetry showed the above corresponding visual field defects.

The first patient is a 16 year old male whose vision has been fluctuating for 6 weeks. He also complains about headaches. His primary care physician feels it’s a normal growth spurt and Mom feels it’s migraines as there is a strong family history, but she still wants eyes checked. His vision is 20/20 OD/OS uncorrected and he has bilateral optic disc edema.

A 35 year old man presents wanting another opinion due to “blood on my right eye”. He says that everything happened 3 days ago after violently vomiting, reportedly due to food poisoning from chicken Caesar salad. He still feels a little nauseated and somewhat “not himself”. He saw another practitioner 3 days ago, was told he had a ‘bruise’ on his eye and it should go away in 1-2 weeks. From the outward appearance, he seems to simply have just a subconjunctival hemorrhage…or does he?

A 13 year old female was referred for painless reduced vision (20/40) in her left eye with a concurrent abnormal screening visual field, reportedly elevated intraocular pressure (IOP), and an afferent pupillary defect. Her previous exam was 3 weeks earlier and she had been previously referred to an ophthalmologist over a year earlier by another optometrist, but her mother did not know why and did not take her. When presented with painless vision loss in a young patient with these findings, there are numerous diagnostic possibilities.

A 27 year old woman presents urgently complaining of painful vision loss in her right eye. She has no known medical history and this has never occurred before. She has an edematous optic nerve with hemorrhaging, an afferent pupil defect, superior arcuate scotoma, pain when she moves her eye, and 20/70 visual acuity. A clear-cut case of optic neuritis possibly as the first manifestation of multiple sclerosis? Perhaps…perhaps not.