The Digital Visual Field Screener

The elderly gentleman looked bemused as I encouraged him to look at my nose as I ‘waggled’ my fingers at the end of my outstretched arms in the vain hope that it might provide some information about the status of his peripheral visual fields. Within his poorly-illuminated lounge, I had no control of any of the parameters which I had been taught might affect the reliability of my visual field assessment-stimulus luminance (finger), background luminance (wallpaper, china ducks and TV screen), fixation target (my nose), stimulus movement (the enthusiasm of my waggling), etc. ‘Visual fields full to confrontation,’ I recorded as I mused whether the result would have been any different if the patient had a full-blown homonymous hemianopia.