Visual Sequelae of ABI
There is no set pattern of total dysfunction from one patient to another. One cannot say “If this happened, then the following will result” vis-a-vis acquired brain injury and the impact on skill and ability. What follows is an overview of effects that are common to ABI. The manner in which they occur, usually in clusters of signs and symptoms, varies greatly.
- 1. Visual Field Loss – central, congruous and incongrous homonymous hemianopsia and quadrantanopsia, altitudinal, neglect.
- 2. Eye movement dysfunction -fixation, pursuit, saccade, nystagmus.
- 3. Ocular muscle dysfunction – strabismus, anisocoria, lagophthalmos, ptosis.
- 4. Binocular dysfunction – exophoria, convergence insufficiency, vertical phoria, fusional instability.
- 5. Accommodative dysfunction – amplitude, flexibility (facility), sustainability.
- 6. Perceptual dysfunction – contrast sensitivity, colour vision, body image, left-right discrimination, spatial relationships, agnosias, ‘subjective visual disturbances’, i.e. wavy and shimmering vision, photosensitivity/photophobia.
- 7.Visually-related vestibular dysfunction – vertigo, loss of balance.
Adapted from “Visual and Vestibular Consequences of Acquired Brain Injury” – OEPF, Suchoff, Ciuffreda, Kapoor.
