Citation

Saliman NH, Belli A, Blanch R. J. Neurotrauma 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2021.0182

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes structural and functional damage to the central nervous system including the visual pathway. Defects in the afferent visual pathways affect visual function and in severe cases causes complete visual loss. Visual dysfunction is detectable by structural and functional ophthalmic examinations that are routine in the eye clinic, including examination of the pupillary light reflex and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Assessment of pupillary light reflex is a non-invasive assessment combining afferent and efferent visual function. While a flashlight assessment is relatively insensitive, automated pupillometry marked 95% specificity and 78.1% sensitivity in detecting TBI-related visual and cerebral dysfunction with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.69-0.78. OCT may also serve as a non-invasive biomarker of TBI severity, demonstrating changes in the retinal ganglion cell layer and nerve fiber layer throughout the range of TBI severity even in the absence of visual symptoms. This review discusses the impact of TBI on visual structure and function.

Language: en

Keywords

ADULT BRAIN INJURY; ASSESSMENT TOOLS; DEGENERATION; HEAD TRAUMA; TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY