The association between post traumatic amnesia and visual photosensitivity in mild traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Background: Visual symptoms are a common occurrence following mTBI. Among visual symptoms, Visual photosensitivity is a frequent manifestation post mTBI, which can disrupt the normal lifestyle of any individual resulting in social and professional distress. Post traumatic amnesia is one of the markers of severity in mTBI. Authors have studied the association between visual photosensitivity and post traumatic amnesia following mTBI. The aim of this study is to find out the association between Visual Photosensitivity and post traumatic amnesia in patients with mild traumatic brain injury.Methods: Hospital based prospective, analytical, observational study. A total of 300 patients with the diagnosis of mTBI were studied. Diagnosis of mTBI was based on the WHO Operational criteria for clinical identification of mTBI.VLSQ-8 Questionnaire was used in this study to diagnose and monitor the progress of visual photosensitivity in patients with mTBI. The Galveston Orientation and Amnesia Test (GOAT) was applied to assess post traumatic amnesia. The study period was from July 2017 to March 2019. Each patient with mTBI who developed visual photosensitivity was followed up for 1 year after the appearance of their symptoms.Results: Thus the main observations of this study were (i) There is a strong possibility of developing visual photosensitivity among the group of patients who presented with the history of post traumatic amnesia following mild traumatic brain injury (p=0.0008)(ii) if a patient with mild traumatic brain injury suffers from visual photosensitivity, possibility of his/her symptoms persisting beyond 6 months increases significantly if there is history of post traumatic amnesia (p=0.0001).Conclusions: This result will help in providing information regarding prognosis of visual photosensitivity following mild traumatic brain injury.