Ophthalmic Consequences of Paediatric Brain Injury Claims – Expert Webinar Recording
Guest webinar speaker, Professor Jane Ashworth
Ophthalmic consequences of paediatric brain injuries are often overlooked in medico-legal casework, yet they play a critical role in assessing causation, prognosis, and long-term care needs. In this expert-led webinar, Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmic Surgeon Professor Jane Ashworth shares clinical and litigation insights to help serious injury and clinical negligence professionals strengthen their case strategies.
Watch the On-Demand Webinar to Learn:
- How Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) is diagnosed and progresses in paediatric brain injury cases
- Why differentiating CVI from Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is crucial in medico-legal claims
- The role of ophthalmic expert evidence in establishing causation and prognosis
- What solicitors should consider when building high-value paediatric brain injury claims
Watch the full webinar below
Why Ophthalmic Consequences of Paediatric Brain Injuries Matter in Clinical Negligence Claims
Early detection of Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) is often challenging — yet its impact on a child’s functional abilities, educational needs, care provision, and quality of life can be profound. These consequences directly influence damages, causation arguments and medico-legal strategy in paediatric brain injury claims.
This makes ophthalmic expert evidence a critical component in strengthening your medico-legal reports, proving clinical causation, and supporting accurate future care projections. Professor Ashworth emphasised why ophthalmic consequences of paediatric brain injuries must be assessed thoroughly when building a strong litigation case.
Key Insights from the Webinar
This session delivered a wealth of clinical and practical insight for solicitors handling complex paediatric brain injury claims. Below is a deeper dive into the core takeaways that can shape stronger medico-legal arguments and influence both causation and quantum.
CVI Is Often Missed in Early Assessments – But Still Has Legal Consequences
One of the key themes of the session was that Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) is frequently underdiagnosed, particularly in the early months or years following a brain injury. CVI is not a structural eye problem — it is a neurological condition caused by damage to the visual pathways in the brain. This makes it harder to detect through routine vision screening.
Professor Ashworth explained that CVI may not become functionally obvious until visual demands increase as a child grows. This means symptoms may be subtle or masked during infancy, yet still have a profound impact on a child’s educational and functional development.
For medico-legal practitioners, this means:
- Early normal vision assessments do not rule out CVI.
- Expert evidence must consider the child’s developmental timeline and how visual processing difficulties might emerge later.
- Ongoing assessments — typically up to age 7 or 8 — are essential to establish a comprehensive medico-legal prognosis.
Differentiating CVI from Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) Is Crucial to Proving Causation
Another frequent challenge in brain injury claims is distinguishing CVI from ROP, especially in premature birth cases. While both conditions can result in visual impairment, their origins and implications are completely different.
As Professor Ashworth emphasised:
“ROP, when well treated, may not cause long-term functional visual loss. CVI, however, may persist despite normal structural findings and continues to affect processing, mobility and quality of life.”
From a medico-legal perspective, misattributing visual symptoms to ROP instead of CVI can fatally weaken a claim — either by deflecting causation away from the negligent brain injury or by underestimating the true impact on the child.
Solicitors must ensure that their instructed expert can:
- Clearly differentiate CVI from ROP based on clinical history, test results and visual behaviour
- Explain the significance of this distinction in the context of causation and prognosis
- Provide defensible reasoning on the contribution of brain injury to the child’s visual difficulties
For a deeper exploration of the clinical and medico-legal complexities of CVI in children, you may also find Professor Ashworth’s article on the Medico-Legal Aspects of Paediatric Cerebral Visual Impairment helpful.
CVI Impacts Function, Environment and Life Planning
Unlike purely structural eye conditions, CVI affects how a child sees and interacts with the world, not just whether they can see clearly on a chart. This has enormous implications for care planning and claim valuation.
Professor Ashworth explored the real-world consequences of CVI, including:
- Navigation difficulties due to poor spatial awareness or depth perception
- Challenges with stairs, uneven ground or crowded spaces, which may necessitate single-storey housing
- Difficulties with reading, attention, and visual memory, impacting educational access
- Increased supervision needs, due to unpredictable visual behaviour
These factors directly inform medico-legal reports around:
- Accommodation recommendations
- Special educational needs support
- Future care costs and supervision ratios
- Prognostic evaluations on long-term independence
As such, CVI must be considered not only in diagnosis but also in the formulation of expert opinion on damages and provision of care.
The Role of Ophthalmic Expert Evidence in Building Robust Cases
Perhaps most importantly, the session highlighted that strong, clinically credible ophthalmic evidence can be the difference between a claim succeeding or falling flat.
Instructing the right expert — and knowing when to engage an ophthalmologist vs orthoptist — is critical. The webinar covered how ophthalmic expert reports:
- Clarify the origin, severity and functional impact of visual impairments
- Help justify future accommodation and care needs
- Reinforce arguments for causation and support quantum assessment
- Can stand up to challenge from defence experts through objective clinical reasoning
Without this input, many CVI-related claims are either under-evidenced or poorly argued, leaving significant compensation unclaimed or vulnerable to dispute.
Need Expert Witness Support or Case Screening?
Whether you’re at the early stages of a claim or preparing expert evidence for trial, our team can help. At Inneg, we work with leading clinicians and consultants to support serious injury and clinical negligence professionals.
We offer:
- Expert witness sourcing across paediatric ophthalmology, neurology and diagnostics
- Case screening services to assess complexity and clinical strength
- Medical record pagination and diagnostic service support tailored to medico-legal needs
Get in touch with us to discuss your requirements, arrange a consultation, or find the right expert for your next case.
