Upon investigating ­the effects of monocular visual field loss in glaucoma patients, a team of Chinese researchers found that the binocular visual field remains relatively intact as long as one eye is at normal or early stage.

This observational, cross-sectional study evaluated 250 glaucoma patients and 31 healthy patients who were assigned to groups according to the stage of monocular visual field loss they were experiencing: normal, early, moderate or severe. The researchers assessed the binocular visual fields via integrated visual field and Esterman binocular visual evaluations and compared monocular and binocular visual field parameters within and among groups. 

In patients with one eye at normal or early stage and the other at severe stage, the team found that the average integrated mean deviations were -1.67dB and -3.27dB, respectively, and the average Esterman scores were 99.17% and 96.08%, respectively. In patients with both eyes at moderate or severe stage, they notes that the average integrated mean deviations were worse than -6dB, and the mean Esterman scores in the moderate/moderate, moderate/severe and severe/severe stage groups were 94.20%, 94.32% and 68.44%, respectively.