Learn about Visual Fields for Glaucoma with Drs. Katie Rachon and Walt Whitley

It’s time for some Woo’s Wisdom for our recent webinar titled “Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting: Interpreting Visual Fields for Glaucoma and More…” By Drs. Katie Rachon and Walt Whitley.

Did you know that 80 million individuals are affected with glaucoma worldwide and 3 million in the US?

Visual fields give us a lot of great information on the functional impact of glaucoma. The central 30 or 24 degrees of the retina are tested, as this is where the majority of our ganglion cells reside.

Drs. Rachon and Whitley walked us through how to navigate the patient printout following a visual field test.

First, we assess reliability. More than 20% of fixation losses and/or more than 15% of false positives would deem a test unreliable.

Total deviation compares patient’s data to age-matched norms

Pattern deviation helps decrease the appearance of artifacts to highlight true glaucomatous loss versus vision changes related to, say a cataract.

Lastly, the gaze tracker will show downticks for blinks and upticks for gaze errors.

Dr. Rachon discussed the benefits of a 10-2 visual field. It can be used to determine progression in patients with severe glaucoma. It can also help identify early glaucoma in patients that are suspects.

A few great cases were discussed, and billing and coding was reviewed.

Lastly, Dr. Whitley reviewed all the amazing technology that is on the horizon. This includes virtual reality, at-home testing, liquid lens technology, and more objective tests that can remove the clicker all-together!

Be sure to check out Drs. Katie Rachon and Walt Whiley's full lecture here: Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting: Interpreting Visual Fields for Glaucoma and More…