Serious eye wounds are one of the most common types of injury experienced by the U.S. military. For example, between October 2001 and June 2006, more than 1,000 troops with combat eye injuries were evacuated from overseas military operations.

To that end, Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.), an optometrist and member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced the Military Eye Trauma Treatment Act (H.R.3558). This legislation addresses the increasing number of eye-related injuries among troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and develops a permanent framework to aid injured troops and veterans with combat-related vision damage.

Specifically, H.R.3558 would create a Center of Excellence within the Department of Defense (DOD) devoted to the prevention, diagnosis, mitigation, treatment and rehabilitation of military eye injuries. Currently, service members and veterans often lack proper eye and vision care because a framework to ensure continuity of care simply does not exist.

The primary responsibility of the Center of Excellence will be to develop a Military Eye Injury Registry that would contain up-to-date information on the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up for each serious eye injury received by any member of the armed forces while serving on active duty. The registry will include input from optometrists and ophthalmologists from both the DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).  

H.R.3558 would also require a joint program between the DOD and the VA for service members and veterans affected by visual dysfunction related to traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI has become the hallmark injury of our current conflicts, says Rep. Boozman. The treatment of TBI, and the vision issues deriving from it, is important work that the Department of Defense and the VA should work together and provide leadership on.

More than half of those treated for TBI at Walter Reed Army Medical Center also experience vision damage. Likewise, more than 70% of service members with brain injuries at the VA Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, Calif., report vision problems.

The bill has received bipartisan support and is cosponsored by 25 other representatives. Various organizations, including the American Optometric Association, American Academy of Ophthalmology and Blinded Veterans Association, have announced enthusiastic support of the legislation.

In August, a similar bill (S.1999) was introduced into the Senate by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and was co-sponsored by Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.M.).

There is an effort to attach both [bills] to the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act (H.R.1538) so that they will move forward quickly, says William V. Padula, O.D., a specialist in neuro-optometric rehabilitation who helped to develop S.1999.

Both bills seek to provide treatment for post trauma vision syndrome (PTVS), a visual processing dysfunction caused by the percussive force of an explosion, Dr. Padula says.

At press time, H.R.3558 had been referred to the House Armed Services Committee, and S.1999 had been referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee for further consideration.