Table 1.

Typical eye examination findings and differential diagnosis in perioperative cornea, retinal, optic nerve, or visual cortex injury.

	Exposure keratopathy	Acute angle closure glaucoma	Anterior ischemic optic neuropathy	Posterior ischemic optic neuropathy	Cerebral blindness	Central retinal artery occlusion
Visual acuity	May be blurry	Cloudy or blurry; excessive tearing; redness; seeing halos	Altitudinal defect; scotoma; less commonly, may have no light perception	Variable, ranging from visual field loss to complete blindness in affected eye(s)	Hemianopia	Varies from visual field loss to no light perception
Pain	May be severe. May have photophobia	May be severe	None	None	None	May be present in cases of external compression of the eye
Other non eye symptoms		Headache, nausea, vomiting			Signs and symptoms of stroke
Intraocular pressure	Normal	Very high (> 60 mm Hg)	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal
Optic disk	Normal	Optic nerve head edema	Optic nerve head edema, later optic atrophy	Normal, later optic atrophy	Normal	Normal, later optic atrophy
Retina	Normal	Normal	May have attenuated retinal arterioles	May have attenuated retinal arterioles	Normal	Normal in the hyperacute and chronic stages. In acute stage, cherry red spot (macula), pallor, narrowed retinal arteries
Pupillary Light reflex	Normal	Dilated pupil	Absent or APD	Absent or APD	Normal	Absent or APD
Ocular muscle function	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	Normal	May be impaired in if the eye has been externally compressed during surgery
Gonioscopy		Narrow angle, corneal edema

APD = afferent pupil defect