Visual Fields in Retinitis Pigmentosa

Lin Mulhall, DOBA

Retinitis Pigmentosa is a hereditary retinal dystrophy which is characterised by night blindness and visual field defects.
This paper describes the visual field of twenty consecutive patients attending the Ocular Diagnostic Clinic of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital. The fields have been classified on a scale from one to seven. The patients with the most severe fields defects also tended to have the highest dark adaptation thresholds and extinguished electroretinograms. Those patients with the earliest age of onset of symptoms had the most severe field defects.
Partial ring scotomata showed sparing in the nasal or lower region, and when annular scotomata broke through to the periphery they did so in the upper part of the field.
It is anticipated that some types of Retinitis Pigmentosa may be treatable within ten to twenty years so it is important to identify patients and to gather data.