panoramic vision

Panoramic vision is an enlargement of the field of vision that some patients with exotropia gain during the deviation.¹ In divergence excess, anomalous retinal correspondence can develop as the eye deviates. The binocular field then extends, and this extension is known as panoramic viewing.² Retinal projection shifts to match the objective angle, a harmonious anomalous correspondence. Foveal suppression may be slight or absent, because each fovea keeps its own visual direction.²

In some patients with a large-angle constant exotropia, red-glass testing produces uncrossed diplopia with homonymous localization of every binocularly perceived image.¹ The same name has been applied to this finding, which suggests a lack of any retinal correspondence, normal or abnormal, as though each eye functioned independently.¹

The wider field can be a real functional advantage. A 46-year-old rural mail carrier with a constant exotropia of 50 prism diopters kept his left eye on the road while scanning mailboxes with his right eye.¹ After surgical alignment he found his field of vision substantially reduced, and several months passed before he could resume his work.¹ Esotropia shows the opposite pattern, because the field of vision is restricted before surgery and enlarges after it.¹