Visual Field Loss In Brain Injury

Visual information from our eyes must travel from our eyes through the brain to the visual cortex, which is located at the back of the brain in the occipital lobe. This long course from front to back leaves these nerve fibers subject to damage from various types of trauma, tumor, stroke and chemical injury. Frequently this results in defects in the visual field or side vision.  Significant trauma on one side of the brain may cause a partial or complete loss of the visual field on the opposite side called a homonymous hemianopsia.

Visual field loss can be quite variable but even a small area of visual field loss can be disruptive to activities like reading. Major visual field loss may limit mobility and the ability to drive.

In the section on Hemianopsia Rehab we discuss visual field loss and rehabilitation in detail.