Loss of vision during a solar eclipse: truth or fiction?

Modern methods of examining the fundus have great diagnostic capabilities. They help doctors distinguish not only the individual layers of the retina, but also to diagnose at the cellular level, to see the blood flow in the vessels, to differentiate the individual fibers of the optic nerve.

Thanks to such diagnostic methods, today it is quite easy to answer the question: is it possible to lose your eyesight if you watch a solar eclipse without glasses with special filters.

Let's consider the case described in detail by our colleagues from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.  

Clinical case

Three days after observing the solar eclipse, a young woman complained of visual impairment. The patient said that she observed a solar eclipse when the moon covered the sun's disk by 70%. She looked at the edge of the sun's disk several times for about 6 seconds without protective glasses. Then, for fifteen to twenty seconds, the woman stared at the sun with glasses from an unknown manufacturer. Four hours later, she noted blurred vision, the appearance of distortions, impaired color perception, and a dark spot in the visual field of her left eye. All these are complaints typical of solar retinopathy.

During an examination of the fundus, American colleagues revealed a white-yellow lesion in the central part of the retina of the left eye.

To confirm the diagnosis of solar retinopathy, specialists from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai performed scanning laser ophthalmoscopy with adaptive optics and spectral optical coherence tomography on the patient. Studies have revealed changes characteristic of acute solar retinopathy.  The changes were more pronounced in the left eye.

The visual acuity of the right eye was 1.0, the left – 0.8. The shape of the spot in the field of vision of the left eye repeated the shape of the lesion of the retina and the solar disk itself during the eclipse. The stain persisted for 6 weeks.

This clinical case proves that it is impossible to observe a partial solar eclipse without glasses with special filters. Otherwise, it can lead to severe solar retinopathy with the formation of a central scotoma (blind spot).

Young people need to be especially careful: the transparent optical media of young people's eyes and wide pupils make them the most vulnerable when observing a solar eclipse without protective glasses.

The EMC Ophthalmology Center has all the conditions for a full-fledged diagnosis (