Visual consequences of TBI in daily life
Steven H. Rauchman
The Fresno Institute of Neuroscience, USA
: J Neurosci Clin Res
Abstract
The undesirable consequences of TBI are experienced by in excess of 5 million people spanning all ages in the United States alone [1]. The vast majority of TBI falls into the mild category and those affected may never be seen by a healthcare provider and never receive a formal diagnosis [2]. Some may enter an emergency department or urgent care facility immediately after an automobile collision or other type of accident and then be discharged with no follow-up. Routine CT and MRI scans of the brain are somewhat insensitive measures of mild TBI and often yield a normal reading. Unfortunately, despite normal imaging, patients may remain symptomatic months to years after injury [3]. Even if these individuals receive a comprehensive neurologic evaluation, effective interventions are lacking. Although visual symptoms and findings are common, they may go unnoticed by medical providers. The importance of ophthalmologic evaluation of such patients is underestimated. The enormous role of the brain in visual information processing is not subsumed within a standard eye exam [4,5]. There is a need for coordination among specialists, including ophthalmologists, in order to address TBI-related losses in ability to gather and process huge amounts of visual data, processing of which is essential for everyday life [6,7]. This presentation will cover practical issues related to the diagnosis and management of TBI and its visual sequelae from a clinical ophthalmologic perspective.
Biography
Steven H Rauchman is a Board Certified Ophthalmologist who received his M.D. from UCSF School of Medicine as a Regent’s Scholar and completed an Ophthalmology Residency at Boston University. Dr. Rauchman has served as Principal Investigator on numerous multi-center clinical trials on a variety of clinical investigations within ophthalmology. Dr. Rauchman was recently first author on a large retrospective Covid-19 study published in Journal of Clinical Medicine and was first author on a publication on traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Neurology International. Dr Rauchman is a review editor for Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience and Research Topic Editor for “Manifestations of mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury” for Frontiers in Neuroscience.
