Visual field

[worriedness]

How much vision is tested on a visual field test? The problem is what if vision is being lost where the visual field test can't see? I have glaucoma and I noticed some loss (dont know if it was because of glaucoma or has been there) in an upper area of my right eye. But the visual field didn't pick it up. Exactly how far does a patient sit from the center folcal light? Thank you

[worriedness]

Doctor?

[worriedness]

In addition, there are areas in my central and perihrel vision that when i put a small black dot on the wall(with a pen or pencil) it dissipears. I was wondering could this be due to glaucoma? There is one that i found in my right eye near my central vision and it is very small. Thing is, it didnt show up on the visual field test.

[worriedness]

Yes he is a glaucoma specialist and he seemed not to be worried about it. He did a dialated eye exam, and a visual field a day ago,and a retinal nerve fiber analysis two months back. In addition my pressures are stable. My only fear is that there is damage taking place outside the visual field test (because I believe it only test 30 degrees) and the doctor not being able to see that. Is that possible?

[Houman Vosoghi, MD]

Depending on which program and machine are used, it can measure the central 24, 30, or higher degrees.  Make sure you are seeing a glaucoma specialist in this regard as they can look at the nerve critically and see if there is correlation between your exam and the area where you see the new blind spots.

HV