Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Retinal Migraine: Evaluation and Management

  • Headache (R.B. Halker Singh and J. VanderPluym, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

This review aims to summarize the last 15 years of literature and case reports detailing retinal migraine—an uncommon and somewhat poorly understood migraine variant.

Recent Findings

In the last 15 years, only 12 cases of retinal migraine have been outlined. Similar to other migraine statistics, retinal migraine appears to affect women more so than men and presents with unilateral headache which tends to be ipsilateral to the side of vision loss. The pathophysiology may relate to vasoconstriction of retinal vessels, as evidenced by ictal fundus photography in the past few years.

Summary

Retinal migraine is a rare entity, with a paucity of described cases in the literature. Retinal migraine is a diagnosis of exclusion, as monocular vision loss might be ascribed to several concerning disorders requiring urgent diagnosis and treatment, and any patient presenting as such should be thoroughly investigated. Patients suffering from retinal migraine appear to respond to typical migraine abortive therapies including NSAIDs and migraine prophylactic medications.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance

  1. Galezowski X. Ophthalmic megrim: an affection of the vasomotor nerves of the retina and retinal centre which may end in a thrombosis. Lancet. 1882;1:176–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. IHS Classification ICHD-3 [Internet]. ICHD-3. International Headache Society; 2021. Available from: https://ichd-3.org/1-migraine/1-2-migraine-with-aura/1-2-4-retinal-migraine/

  3. Hill DL, Daroff RB, Ducros A, Newman NJ, Biousse V. Most cases labeled as “retinal migraine” are not migraine. J Neuro-Ophthalmol. 2007;27:3–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Evans RW, Daroff RB. Monocular visual aura with headache: retinal migraine? Headache. 2000;40:603–4.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. • El Youssef N, Maalouf N, Mourad A, Saade J, Khoury M. Teaching NeuroImages: retinal migraine in action. Neurology. 2018;90:e992 This report provided evidence for potential underlying pathophysiology for retinal migraine by performing ictal fundus photography; this indicated reversible central and branch retinal artery vasoconstriction during and after an episode of retinal migraine. It is the first publication on the topic to do so.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Grosberg BM, Solomon S, Friedman DI, Lipton RB. Retinal migraine reappraised. Cephalalgia. 2006;26:1275–86.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Grosberg BM, Solomon S. Retinal migraine: two cases of prolonged but reversible monocular visual defects. Cephalalgia. 2006;26:754–7.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Ota I, Kuroshima K, Nagaoka T. Fundus video of retinal migraine. JAMA Ophthalmol. 2013;131:1481–2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lee SH, Shin JH, Hwang JW. Long-lasting reversible monocular visual loss of retinal migraine. Acta Neurol Belg [Internet]. Springer International Publishing. 2020;2020:2–4. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13760-020-01503-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Stunkel L, Sharma RA, Mackay D, Wilson B, Van Stavern G, Newman NJ, et al. Patient harm due to diagnostic error of neuro-ophthalmologic conditions. Ophthalmology. 2021:S0161–6420.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William Kingston.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Headache

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Maher, M.E., Kingston, W. Retinal Migraine: Evaluation and Management. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 21, 35 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-021-01122-1

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-021-01122-1

Keywords

Navigation