Can you lose eye sight from a stroke?
James Craig
Published Apr 03, 2026
In general, patients who have strokes or other brain injuries that affect the vision centers on the right side of the brain will have vision loss to the left (in both eyes). Patients who have strokes that affect the vision centers in the left side of the brain will have vision loss to the right (in both eyes).
Can a stroke cause blindness in one eye?
Nerves from each eye travel together in the brain, so both eyes are affected. If the right side of your brain is damaged, the left side vision in each eye may be affected. It is rare for both sides of the brain to be affected by stroke. When it does happen, it can result in blindness.
What does it mean when you go blind out of the left eye?
The most common cause of blindness in one eye is reduced blood flow. The carotid arteries in your neck bring blood to your eyes and brain from your heart. Sometimes plaque (fatty deposits) builds up on the walls of these blood vessels, reducing the amount of blood that can pass through them.
How does a stroke affect your eyes?
Sometimes a stroke can affect the way you control your eyes, causing eye movement problems. This may make moving from looking at one thing to another difficult or affect the way you judge distances between objects. It can also mean that your eye is constantly moving so that objects seem to wobble.
Is an eye stroke a stroke?
Eye strokes are related to but different from cerebral or brain strokes – the so-called normal strokes we think of when someone says stroke. Eye strokes are similar in that they result from reduced blood flow, Browne explains. In addition, cerebral strokes “can also result from rupture and bleeding from an artery.”
Is an eye stroke the same as a regular stroke?
What causes sudden blindness in one eye?
Common causes of sudden vision loss include eye trauma, blockage of blood flow to or from the retina (retinal artery occlusion or retinal vein occlusion), and pulling of the retina away from its usual position at the back of the eye (retinal detachment).
What can cause sudden blindness in one eye?
Can you fully recover from a left sided stroke?
Recovery time after a stroke is different for everyone—it can take weeks, months, or even years. Some people recover fully, but others have long-term or lifelong disabilities.
What kind of stroke causes blindness?
Most strokes affect one side of the brain. If the right occipital lobe is injured, the left field of vision in each eye may be affected. A stroke that affects the left occipital lobe may disturb the right field of vision in each eye. Rarely, both sides of the brain are affected, but this can result in blindness.
What are the signs of a stroke in your eye?
How can I tell if I’m having an eye stroke?
- Floaters, which appear as small gray spots floating around in your field of vision.
- Pain or pressure in the eye, though eye strokes are often painless.
- Blurry vision that steadily worsens in a part or all of one eye.
- Complete vision loss that happens gradually or suddenly.
During an eye stroke, the retina’s veins or arteries stop working as they should. They become blocked by a clot or a narrowing of the blood vessel. Much like a cerebral stroke, where blood to the brain is reduced or cut off, the retinas in the eye lose their blood supply.
Can you have a stroke in one eye?
Symptoms. The main sign of eye stroke is a sudden change in sight. It almost always happens in only one eye. You usually won’t feel any pain.
Can a stroke cause loss of vision in both eyes?
You can get a more in-depth look at the eye conditions related to stroke in our downloadable factsheet. Hemianopia is where there is a loss of one half of your visual field. This may mean that you’re not able to see to either the left or right from the centre of your field of vision in both eyes.
Can a person go blind after a stroke?
Once thought irreversible, vision loss sometimes associated with stroke may be treatable. By doing a set of vigorous visual exercises on a computer every day for several months, patients who had gone partially blind as a result of suffering a stroke were able to regain some vision. Such rigorous visual…
What happens when you have a stroke to one side of your brain?
If you have a stroke to one side of your brain, you may develop field loss to the opposite side. For example, if the right side of your brain has been affected by the stroke, the left side vision in each eye may be affected.
What to do with double vision after stroke?
If you have double vision, try closing one eye or using a patch when reading or watching television. If you have lost your vision to one side, it is important to move your eyes and head towards the weaker side, for example on entering a room.