Medical Mystery? Eyes Clamped Shut

Oct. 2, 2008 — -- A young woman's eye trouble in Australia is so unique that doctors across the world are questioning whether she's a one-of-kind medical case -- or a psychological one.

For four years, Natalie Adler of Caulfield South, Melbourne, Australia, has suffered from a rare condition where her eyes shut tight for about three days at a time. After the third day, Adler awakens, able to use her eyes again.

"The night before it sets in, my eyes get quite heavy and that is how I know it is coming," said Adler.

When her eyes are closed, Alder said she can only see through a small slit in her left eye. The condition quite literally becomes a real pain in the neck.

"When my eyes are shut, I have a pain on either side of my temples. I feel nausea, and my body aches all over," said Adler. "I have neck pain from leaning back trying to see out of the bottom of my left eye."

Adler, now 21, told the Daily Mail that phenomenon started one night before a school exam when she was 17 years old, and after a sinus and staph infection. It never got better.

Whatever caused the condition, Adler's health care providers say they have not been able to diagnose her.

"It's been about four years ... [and] she's still continuing her treatment," said Catherine Mancuso, an orthoptist who coordinated Adler's treatment plans at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Adler's ophthalmologist declined to make a public comment.

"We're not really sure of the diagnosis," said Mancuso.

Neurologist professors across the globe in the U.S. are equally confused.

"There's nothing that would cause symptoms of a woman to close her eyes for three days, and open her eyes for three days," said Dr. Dean Cestari, a neuro-ophthalmologist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston.

Cestari, who is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, notes that with every patient he sees, he determines if their symptoms are "organic," caused by physical damage to the body, or "a conversion," which is a physical symptom caused subconsciously by an emotional trigger.