The effect of head trauma on the visual system: the doctor of optometry as a member of the rehabilitation team.

Brain injury results from either head trauma or strokes and causes many visual and visually related disturbances. Rehabilitation is aimed at developing skills that allow the patient to optimally function as a viable and independent member of society. Often the resultant visual deficits remain undiagnosed and untreated, which hinder the patient's total rehabilitation. Optometric evaluation of brain injured patients should routinely be performed as part of the transdisciplinary team approach to rehabilitation. Optometrists are uniquely qualified to diagnose and treat visual and functional deficits of the visual system in the brain injured population. The purpose of this paper is to present a rationale for optometric participation in the rehabilitation of head trauma and stroke patients.