Rare diseases · Sign or symptom

Focal sensory seizure with visual features

HP:0011165

What it means

A seizure characterized by elementary visual hallucinations such as flashing or flickering lights/colors, or other shapes, simple patterns, scotomata, or amaurosis as its first clinical manifestation.

More complex visual hallucinations such as seeing formed images are considered a focal cognitive seizure. Focal sensory visual seizures arise in the occipital lobe. Note that there is a distinction between Visual aura and Simple partial occipital seizures. See HPO term HP:0025121 for comments.

Rare diseases that can present with this1

Sometimes5–29%

1

The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.

Part of the broader category

Also called: Focal visual seizure · Partial visual seizure · Simple partial occipital seizures · Visual aura · Visual auras

Focal sensory seizure with visual features

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This page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.