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Low Vision
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A significant visual impairment that cannot be corrected fully with glasses, contact lenses, medication or eye surgery is termed as low vision. It is caused by severe eye disease, in which visual acuity in the better eye is 20/70 or less, or where there is a significant loss of visual field (constriction to 20 degrees or less, termed tunnel vision).
Low Vision of Eye
Visual acuity of a person with 20/70 vision who is 20 feet from an eye chart sees what a person with unimpaired (or 20/20) vision can see from 70 feet away. Low vision can impact people of all ages, but it is associated primarily with adults over the age of 60.
Symptoms & Causes
Causes and typical patterns of low vision which cannot be corrected include:
● Blurred or partially obscured central vision: Macular degeneration (both, age-related, and hereditary)
● Blind spots, blurriness and visual distortions: Diabetic retinopathy
● Poor peripheral vision, or tunnel vision: Glaucoma
● Poor peripheral vision, and inability to see in the dark: Retinitis pigmentosa
● Eye injuries
● Poor central vision which may progress to no light perception: Optic neuropathies which may be inherited or acquired (toxic)