Vergence and accommodation deficits in paediatric and adolescent patients during sub-acute and chronic phases of concussion recovery

Visual function deficits have been reported in adolescents following concussion. We compared vergence and accommodation deficits in paediatric and adolescent patients at a tertiary medical centre in the sub-acute (15 days to 12 weeks) and chronic (12 weeks to 1 year) phases of concussion recovery.

The study included patients aged 7 to <18 years seen between 2014 and 2021, who had a binocular vision (BV) examination conducted within 15 days and 1 year of their concussion injury. Included patients had to have 0.10 logMAR monocular best-corrected vision or better in both eyes and be wearing a habitual refractive correction. BV examinations at near included measurements of near point of convergence, convergence and divergence amplitudes, vergence facility, monocular accommodative amplitude and monocular accommodative facility. Vergence and accommodation deficits were diagnosed using established clinical criteria. Group differences were assessed using nonparametric statistics and ANCOVA modelling.

A total of 259 patients were included with 111 in the sub-acute phase and 148 in the chronic phase of concussion recovery. There was no significant difference in the rates of vergence deficits between the two phases of concussion recovery (sub-acute = 48.6%; chronic = 49.3%). There was also no significant difference in the rates of accommodation deficits between the two phases of concussion recovery (sub-acute = 82.0%; chronic = 77.0%).

Patients in both the sub-acute and chronic phases of concussion recovery exhibited a high frequency of vergence and accommodation deficits, with no significant differences between groups. Results indicate that patients exhibiting vision deficits in the sub-acute phase may not resolve without intervention, though a prospective, longitudinal study is required to test the hypothesis.