Brain Injury

Following any acquired brain injury be it due to stroke, surgery, trauma, whiplash, concussion or repetitive injury in sport, vision and visual perception can be affected.

Visual function involves so many different parts of the brain that it has been found that 75-85% of brain injury patients will have some kind of visually related symptomology following an incident.

Often such as in whiplash, the trauma to the head is not obvious and it might be suspected that only the neck is affected. However the forces generated by the impact cause the brain to move about suddenly within the skull, akin to a piece of blancmange being thrown around a box shaped piece of bone which has rough inner surfaces. This movement of the brain lead to a shearing and compression of brain tissue.

The damage may be too small to show up on a CT scan though will be significant enough to affect the patient’s visual function.

The effects on visual function following brain injury can include blurry vision, double vision, motion sensitivity, headaches, light sensitivity and an inability to walk in a straight line.

Patients can also experience issues with balance, sensory overload and general fatigue.

In America and Spain, neuro-developmental optometrists work as part of the brain injury team that deals with patients on their first admission into hospital.

An intervention programme with our practice would involve the provision of glasses specifically prescribed to help with the symptoms following a brain injury and where appropriate tinted lenses, provision of a prismatic correction in the glasses, specialised spectacle mounted devices and where appropriate a vision training  rehabilitation programme.