Although most visual complaints are due to common conditions, such as the need for eyeglasses or cataracts, there are some conditions due to problems with the connections between the eyes and the brain. These disorders are not common and include neurological conditions such as strokes, multiple sclerosis and brain tumors.
If your usual problem, such as blurred vision, is due to a common eye condition such as needing glasses, cataracts or macular degeneration, your ophthalmologist will be able to diagnose these problems. It is when there seems to be no eye-related disorder to account for the visual loss that you can be referred to a neuro-ophthalmologist, a specialist in brain-eye disorders.
Double vision is another condition that might be due to a problem in the connections between the brain and the eyes, and is best evaluated by a neuro-ophthalmologist.