Vision profile of patients with mild brain injury.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Patients suffering from a traumatic brain injury (TBI) show many types of visual dysfunctions, including binocular, oculomotor, accommodative and visual field loss. This study evaluates the visual status of patients suffering a mild TBI. METHODS: The visual findings of a control group of 16 non-TBI patients are compared to the visual findings of 16 patients with documented mild TBI. Functions compared include symptomology, refractive status, stereopsis, ocular alignment by cover test, relative accommodation, pursuits, near point of convergence break and recovery, phorias at distance and near and vergence ranges at distance and near. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between the two groups in the areas of refractive status, near point of convergence break/recovery, near cover test, stereo acuity and base-in break at distance. There were also significant differences in symptomology, pursuit function, base-in recovery at distance, base-in break/recovery at near and base-out recovery at distance. CONCLUSIONS: In-depth visual evaluation of mild TBI patients is critical for documentation purposes as well as for possible treatment regimens.