Synonyms
Definition
Measurement across pupillary aperture.
Basic Characteristics
In healthy subjects, pupils are circular and equal in size (3–5 mm). A variety of influences may cause variation in pupil size ranging between 1.5 mm (miosis) and 8 mm (mydriasis). A difference in size of more than 1 mm between the pupils of both eyes is called anisocoria (Schünke et al. 2007).
Pupil diameter can be affected by neurologic conditions such as an afferent pupillary defect or Horner’s Syndrome as well as by sleepiness, pharmaceutical side effects, psychiatric disorders, or autonomic neuropathy in diabetes mellitus or trauma (Wilhelm and Wilhelm 2003).
Pupil diameter is a determinant of outcome after refractive surgery. Visual symptoms such as halos, star bursts, and glare may emerge after keratorefractive procedures with a small optical zone or implantation of phakic intraocular lenses (IOLs) in patients with large scotopic pupils. The eye has numerous optical aberrations that...
References
Kohnen T, Terzi E, Kasper T, Kohnen EM, Bühren J (2004) Correlation of infrared pupillometers and CCD-camera imaging from aberrometry and videokeratography for determining scotopic pupil size. J Cataract Refract Surg 30(10):2116–2123
Schnitzler EM, Baumeister M, Kohnen T (2000) Scotopic measurement of normal pupils: Colvard versus Video Vision Analyzer infrared pupillometer. J Cataract Refract Surg 26(6):859–866
Schünke M et al (2007) Atlas of anatomy – head and neuroanatomy, 1st edn. Thieme, New York, p 128
Wilhelm H, Wilhelm B (2003) Clinical applications of pupillography. J Neuroophthalmol 23(1):42–49
Yang Y, Thompson K, Burns SA (2002) Pupil location under mesopic, photopic, and pharmacologically dilated conditions. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 43(7):2508–2512
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Haeussler-Sinangin, Y., Kohnen, T. (2016). Pupil Diameter. In: Schmidt-Erfurth, U., Kohnen, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Ophthalmology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35951-4_441-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35951-4_441-3
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