Convergence Testing for Impairment of the Visual System Following Concussions

People with a concussion often report an inability to focus with their eyes, blurriness, double vision, losing their place while reading, eye pain, headaches, dizziness, difficulty with reading comprehension, fatigue, and poor concentration or easily distracted. For example, while trying to read or perform schoolwork, many people will start to have blurriness and eye-strain that leads to headaches which then causes frustration, decreased reading comprehension, decreased attention, and decreased ability to perform their work.

All of the aforementioned issues can be tied back to one, often over-looked issue: convergence insufficiency.

Some related visual components:

• Accommodation is the ability of the eye to make adjustments of the lens to focus on objects at various distances.
• Vergence is movement of the eyes synchronously and symmetrically in opposite directions.
• Divergence is the ability of the eyes to move laterally, towards the ears, to be able to see farther targets.
• Convergence is the ability of the eyes to move medially, towards the nose, which allow for single vision of closer objects – the ability to cross your eyes, therefor Convergence insufficiency is the inability to do so. Accommodation and vergence work synchronously to be able to focus clearly and quickly on objects at different distances.
• Our providers use a Prism bar to test fusional ranges.