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  • Courtesy of Damien Luviano, MD, FACS, and Nishant Kumar.
    File Size: 96 KB
    Comprehensive Ophthalmology, Neuro-Ophthalmology/Orbit

    The Humphrey Visual Field demonstrates a right homonymous hemianopic scotomata, congruous, central involving visual field defect secondary to occipital brain insult. The patient presented with 20/30 OU vision, but with a visual disturbance to the right of fixation. The primary visual area in the brain, also known as V1, is located along the occipital lobe along the calcarine fissure. Lesions in the occipital lobe are retrochiasmatic; therefore, they result in contralateral homonymous hemianopia visual defects that are very congruous. Insults to the brain below the calcarine fissure produce superior visual defects (see figure). Insults to the brain above the calcarine fissure produce inferior visual defects. Right occipital insults lead to left visual field defects. Left occipital insults lead to right visual defects (see figure). In the Humphrey Visual Field attached, an insult to the left occipital tip below the calcarine fissure led to the right homonymous superior quadrantanopia that involves only a few degrees of the foveal center. The size of the visual defect is proportional to the size and location of the insult.