Visual field fundaments

Abstract

Research about the visual field have been done since the fifth century before Christ, and through the time, the study has advanced in its exploration methods and in the campimetric defect types. Nowadays, there are some campimetric exploration methods such as the kinetic confrontation method where a stimulus is presented from the periphery to the center both horizontally and vertically; Goldman’s kinetic and qualitative perimeter where variable light stimulus are emitted to determine the threshold in each point; computerized visual campimeter is a kind of static and quantitative perimetry which emits immobile stimulus with different intensity to determine the value of threshold in each point. With these instruments a visual field study may be done and also detect campimetric alterations such as: visual field depressions, visual field contractions and absolute or relative scotomas. These scotomas can be classified regarding their morphology as hemianopsias and cuadrantanopsias; and regarding their location as central, paracentral, caecal, centrocaecal, arciform and annular. Based on a previous knowledge of the way to measure the visual field, the eye’s anatomy and types of field-metric defects, the analyst has the necessary tools to give an appropriate reading of the visual field and to be able to correlate the result with different affectations may be present regarding the location from the eye following the way through the optic via to the occipital cortex.