Aortic valve replacement and visual disturbance

[Ticker]

Two years ago I had successful AVR replacement. I'm now fit and well apart from episodes of visual disturbance - zig zag lines across my vision - which can occur as often as every few days, but only last for about thirty minutes each time. There is no significant accompanying headache. Sometimes I can go weeks without this happening. Any idea why this may be happening?

[Blackseal]

5 years ago I had an aeortic anuerism (sp) repaired with a wrap. I was 38 and bounced back very well. I would however get the blurry vision you describe but w/o any headaches. These went away with a daily aspirin.

[Stan H]

I had a very similar experience after my mitral valve repair.  For details, please email me at ***@****

[CCF-M.D.-CRC]

Dear Ticker,
Visual disturbances such as you describe could be due to several different things.  You allude to one of the more common reasons which is visual changes with migraine headaches.  Rarely one can have the visual changes alone without the headache.  Other vascular causes such as inflammatory conditions (e.g. temporal arteritis) and spasm could cause these changes.  With the history of the valve replacement I would be concerned about small clots coming from the aortic valve.  The risk of this would be higher if it was a mechanical valve and if there were difficulties controlling your coumadin levels. Other occular diseases could cause visual field changes.  I would probably recommend seeing an opthomologist first and then a neurologist if the source still cannot be identified.