Central Retinal Artery Occlusion

Central retinal artery occlusion is a disease of the eye in which blood flow through the central retinal artery becomes blocked, most commonly by atherosclerosis of the carotid artery, and it typically causes sudden, painless loss of vision in one eye. It occurs at an incidence of roughly 1 in 100,000 people, with risk factors including age over 50, male sex, smoking, hypertension, and diabetes, and irreversible neural damage can begin within about 15 minutes of complete blockage, though this varies among individuals. Diagnosis involves fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography.