Changes in retinal light sensitivity following blunt ocular trauma

Purpose To prospectively examine changes in retinal light sensitivity follo wing blunt ocular trauma in eyes with traumatic hyphaema with no evidence o f retinal injuries 1 week, 1 month and 4 months after injury. Method Sixteen patients who sustained hyphaema after blunt ocular trauma wi thout visible traumatic retinal lesions underwent visual field testing on t he C 30-2 programme of the Humphrey field analyser as soon as visual acuity recovered to 0.7 or more with correction. Results Significant reduction in retinal sensitivity with MD (mean deviatio n) p values less than 5% was found in 50% (8 eyes) of our patients 1 week a fter injury. MD y values significantly improved 1 month after injury (p < 0 .001) and even more so after 4 months (p < 0.00004). After 4 months only in one eye (6%) was a significant reduction in retinal sensitivity observed w ith a MD p value less than 5%. No correlations between improvement in retin al sensitivity and the extent of hyphaema or the extent of angle recession were observed. Conclusions In 50% of eyes following blunt ocular trauma without evident tr aumatic posterior segment abnormalities significant transient reduction in retinal light sensitivity was observed with nearly complete recovery over t ime.