Brain Injury: Vision and Associated Disorders
Brain injury can result in a variety of vision problems. Because the optic nerves, optic tracts and motor nerves to the eye run long courses through or under the brain, they can be affected in a variety of manners based on the location of the lesion. The list below includes some of the commonly associated problems in brain injury:
- Hemianopsia (Loss of half of the field of view right or left)
- Quadranopsias (Loss of about 1/4 sector of the visual field)
- Central Loss of Visual Field
- Sectorial Loss of Visual Field
- Peripheral Visual Field Loss
- Total Loss of Visual Field
- Attitudinal Losses of Visual Field
- Photophobia
- Reading Disorders
- Double Vision - Exotropia, Esotropia and Hypertropia
- Cranial Nerve Paresis / Paralysis III ,IV, VI , VII
- Nystagmus
- Lagophthalmos
- Dry Eye from Decreased Blink Rate
- Visual Hallucinations - Formed Objects/People
- Visual Hallucinations - Unformed Stars, Lighting Bolts Anisocoria
- Accommodative Problems in Patients under 40 Convergence Problems
- Pseudomyopia due to Spasm of accommodation (focusing)
- Disturbances of Light Photosensitivity - Vision seems too bright
- Disturbances of Dark Adaptation. Vision seems too dark
- Eye Movement Disorders, Fixation, Pursuits
- Unstable Ambient Vision
- Loss of Contrast Sensitivity - Vision seems foggy.
- Visual Perceptual Disturbances, Palinopsia, or Perseveration of an image
- Disturbances in body image Disturbances of spatial relationships
- Hemi spatial In-attention (Visual Neglect)
- Agnosia - difficulty in object recognition
- Apraxia - difficulty in manipulation of objects Memory Problems
- Psychological problems
- Frequent Headaches
Modified from a list by Allen Cohen, O.D. and Lynn Rein, O.D.