The aura of migraine typically lasts from 20 minutes to an hour.
Some patients have prolonged aura symptoms that can last hours to days.
The aura also typically ends before the headache itself begins. When migraine aura symptoms are prolonged or last into or through the headache phase these types of migraine are commonly referred to as complicated migraines. There are several forms of these complicated migraine attacks. There is opthalmoplegic migraine where patients develop a partial or complete paralysis of the nerves that are needed for eye movement. There is retinal migraine where the patient's visual symptoms occur from the retina itself versus the portion of the brain involved in vision, as is the case for the typical migraine aura.