[Medical Q&A] Can cervical spondylosis also cause blurred vision?

Planner: Chinese Medical Association

Reviewer: Shao Zengwu, Chief Physician and Professor of Union Hospital affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Cervical spondylosis may cause blurred vision.

Cervical spondylosis is mainly divided into five types: radiculopathy, myelopathy, sympathetic cervical spondylosis, vertebral artery cervical spondylosis and mixed cervical spondylosis. The pathological manifestations of cervical spondylosis are diverse, so different types of cervical spondylosis will have different clinical manifestations.

The main manifestations of radiculopathy are unilateral or bilateral upper limb pain, with or without upper limb sensory and motor disorders. Some patients may have positive upper limb traction tests and positive neck compression tests. The main manifestations of myelopathy are weakness, numbness, and unstable gait in the limbs, and the feeling of walking on cotton when walking, with or without the feeling of thoracolumbar belt. Severe cases may have difficulty walking, incontinence, and even paralysis in bed. Some patients with this type of cervical spondylosis may have positive Hoffman sign, hyperreflexia of the tendons, and even pathological reflexes. Sympathetic cervical spondylosis is mainly a sympathetic nerve disorder. Patients may have symptoms such as facial sweating, blurred vision, dizziness, tachycardia or bradycardia, and cold limbs. Some patients may have a positive sign of difficulty standing with eyes closed. Vertebral artery cervical spondylosis is manifested by dizziness, headache, memory loss, tinnitus, hearing loss, and difficulty swallowing. Among them, dizziness caused by head rotation is a more obvious feature of this type of cervical spondylosis. This type of cervical spondylosis usually has no incubation period and is paroxysmal. The duration of vertigo is short. In mild cases, it can be relieved by rest. In severe cases, vertigo may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, unstable gait, and even cataplexy. The phenomenon of cataplexy caused by head rotation in some patients is another typical feature of this type of cervical spondylosis. After falling, the patient will get up immediately without consciousness disorder. Mixed cervical spondylosis has symptoms of two or more types of cervical spondylosis.