Definition
The moving bodies are small black dots, dark spots or jagged lines that float within the visual field. Some people experience a sort of "spider web effect", while others report the vision of a single large black corpuscle ("flying flies" phenomenon). These opacities do not correspond to visual objects actually present in the external visual field.
Slight moving bodies may appear under certain lighting conditions (eg in sunlight) or when rubbing the eyes. However, the sudden appearance of myopia also falls between the initial symptoms of severe retinal and vitreous pathologies. Among these, the most frequent cause is retinal detachment, an event that can be caused by aging, trauma and retinal diseases (vascular, inflammatory, infectious or tumor). The presence of moving bodies can also suggest dysfunction or opacification of the vitreous, for example following hemorrhage or inflammation. Rare causes include tumors and the presence of intraocular foreign bodies, although these conditions are generally accompanied by other symptoms, such as loss of vision, pain or redness.
A non-ocular disease that causes myopia is migraine. In some cases, floating bodies can be associated with diabetes, outcomes of advanced eye surgery or cataracts.
During the medical evaluation, it is necessary to ascertain the onset and duration of symptoms, the shape, the volume of the mobile bodies and their distribution in the visual field, besides distinguishing whether they are monolateral or bilateral.
Detail of the so-called movable bodies of the eye
Possible Causes * of moving bodies
- Cataract
- Retinal detachment
- Migraine
- Iridocyclitis
- Optic neuritis
- Retinoblastoma
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Uveitis
