Oculocephalic reflex

In medicine, the oculocephalic reflex, also doll's eye reflex, is an eye movementto maintain forward gaze in response to neckrotation. It is considered a normal response.

The name doll's eye reflex comes from the fact that many dollswith movable eyes exhibit the reflex.

It can be used to evaluate dizzypatients for vestibularpathologies and yields information similar to testing the vestibulo-ocular reflex.^{[{{fullurl:Template:FULLPAGENAME}}#endnote_Harvey]}

In the setting of brain injury, an absent oculocephalic reflex carries a very poor prognosis.^{[{{fullurl:Template:FULLPAGENAME}}#endnote_Pillai]}

Physicianssometimes test for it when assessing whether a patient is brain dead. In a deadperson the eyes remain fixed relative to the head when the neck is rotated. Since the test involves rapid neck movement, it is contraindicatedin patients with spinal cord injuriesand suspected spinal cord injuries.

See also

• Brain death

External link

• Oculocephalic reflex- fpnotebook.com

References

1. ^ Harvey SA, Wood DJ. The oculocephalic response in the evaluation of the dizzy patient. Laryngoscope. 1996 Jan;106(1 Pt 1):6-9. PMID 8544630
2. ^ Pillai S, Praharaj SS, Mohanty A, Kolluri VR. Prognostic factors in children with severe diffuse brain injuries: a study of 74 patients. Pediatr Neurosurg. 2001 Feb;34(2):98-103. PMID 11287810

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculocephalic+reflex Wikipedia article Oculocephalic reflex.