Expert Witness Journal Issue 64 December 2025 - Flipbook - Page 79
However the Left optic disc appears healthy and the
OCT scan of the nerve 昀椀bre layer is within normal
limits.
Patient C - Mr C was injured in an accident at work
when a powerful jet of water struck his Right eye.
This was followed by extremely blurred vision. The
optometrist found reduced vision and a visual 昀椀eld
defect. He experiences a great deal of di昀케culty
as the Right eye is his dominant eye. Right vision
has reduced by one line on the Snellen chart and
the quality of vision is poor. He su昀昀ers in bright
conditions and 昀椀nds great di昀케culty with his work
and all day-to-day activities. His optic discs were
normal in appearance and OCT scans were entirely
normal. The Right visual 昀椀eld shows a superior
temporal loss. (Fig 3)
Fig. 1c
Patient B - Mrs B is an elderly woman who was run
over by a car as a pedestrian. She had several injuries
including a Left orbit fracture which was treated
conservatively. Her eye was noted to be slightly
sunken. She su昀昀ered ocular discomfort and altered
sensation on the Left cheek due to infraorbital nerve
damage. She has been incapacitated, cannot cross
the road with con昀椀dence, and is now using a walking
stick. She has a very marked visual 昀椀eld loss in the
Left eye. (Fig 2)
Fig. 3
Results
From this series of thirteen patients, eight were
road tra昀케c accidents two of which were pedestrian
incidents, three were blunt injuries to the eyeball,
one was a fall at work, and one was a head injury at
home. Eight had lost consciousness. Visual acuities
ranged from 6/5 to 6/12. Six had OCT scans of the
nerve 昀椀bre layer of the retina. One scan out of the
six showed a borderline result but this did not relate
to the position of the visual 昀椀eld loss. The Visual
Field Index, where 100% is normal, ranged from
96% to 60%. There were seven males aged 25 to 76
and six females aged 27 to 76. Three in the series
had an orbit fracture. Hearing damage and loss of
balance were other injuries seen in this series.
Fig. 2
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
76
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2025-2026
