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Visual field test
Make it clearer
The visual field is everything you can see without moving your eye. You fix your gaze on one point and, all around it, you keep seeing things with your side vision, the peripheral vision. Traquair described it as an island of vision surrounded by a sea of blindness. The visual field test measures exactly that extent.
One way of doing it is called automated perimetry. You sit in front of a concave dome, like a hollow half sphere, and look at a target in the center without moving. Meanwhile, small flashes appear at different points in your peripheral vision, and you press a button every time you see one.
That shows whether vision is missing anywhere and, above all, what shape the loss takes, because the pattern of the loss points toward the cause. That is why it is repeated over time: it is used to follow diseases that keep getting worse, such as glaucoma.
In brief
The visual field is the area you see with your side vision while the eye stays fixed on one point; the test measures that extent.
Traquair described it as an island of vision surrounded by a sea of blindness.
In automated perimetry you look at a target at the center of a concave dome and press a button at each peripheral flash.
This shows where vision is missing in the field, and the pattern points to the cause; it is used to follow diseases that worsen, such as glaucoma.
Sources (2)
- MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of MedicineVisual field, MedlinePlus Medical EncyclopediaPublished
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingHumphrey Visual Field, StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
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