Management of Acute Retinal Ischemia

Acute retinal arterial ischemia, including vascular transient monocular vision loss (TMVL) and branch (BRAO) and central retinal arterial occlusions (CRAO), are ocular and systemic emergencies requiring immediate diagnosis and treatment. Guidelines recommend the combination of urgent brain magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion-weighted imaging, vascular imaging, and clinical assessment to identify TMVL, BRAO, and CRAO patients at highest risk for recurrent stroke, facilitating early preventive treatments to reduce the risk of subsequent stroke and cardiovascular events. Because the risk of stroke is maximum within the first few days after the onset of visual loss, prompt diagnosis and triage are mandatory. Eye care professionals must make a rapid and accurate diagnosis and recognize the need for timely expert intervention by immediately referring patients with acute retinal arterial ischemia to specialized stroke centers without attempting to perform any further testing themselves. The development of local networks prompting collaboration among optometrists, ophthalmologists, and stroke neurologists should facilitate such evaluations, whether in a rapid-access transient ischemic attack clinic, in an emergency department-observation unit, or with hospitalization, depending on local resources.