Assessing the Effects of Concomitant Traumatic Brain Injury and Vision Loss on Wounded Warriors in Patients from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Abstract
Due to the highly visual nature of military activities, eyes are frequently exposed to potential injury in military training and combat scenarios. Even the partial loss of vision in one eye could result in the medical retirement of service members. Given the highly organized structure of the eye, there is no capability to restore function to damaged retinal or optic nerve tissue. Eye injuries constitute approximately 13 of military casualties from Iraqi and Enduring Freedom and are a frequent source of non-combat and training injury. Additionally, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is frequently associated with injuries that involve the eye. This study has four specific aims: The first is to query the Walter Reed Ocular Trauma Database (WROTD), a large dataset consisting of granular data in the DoD, for military eye injuries to report on trends and outcomes related to combat ocular trauma and address capability gaps as well as determine the impact of eye trauma on the military. The second aim is to longitudinally evaluate, in a prospective ongoing protocol, the quality of life of a cohort of patients with combat ocular injuries. Measuring the quality of life impact on a prospective eye injury cohort is invaluable in evaluating non-visual quality of life measures. Despite achieving good visual acuity outcomes, some patients continue to experience significant quality of life effects following eye injuries. The third and fourth aims, also a part of the ongoing prospective protocol, will address the TBI-related visual dysfunction cohort within the prospective study. This study will continue work on aggregating the quality of life and quality of vision data, as well as, report on the visual dysfunction associated with traumatic brain injury and the impact of eye injuries on traumatic brain injury patients.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1153686
Entities
People
- Marcus H. Colyer
Organizations
- Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine