Unilateral Vertical Nystagmus: The Heimann-Bielschowsky Phenomenon
Thammanoon Surachatkumtonekul MD*, Pittaya Pamonvaechavan MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand
Objective : To present clinical feature of Heimann-Bielschowsky phenomenon and strabismus association.
Results : Retrospective case series.
Material and Method: Medical records of cases between January 2004 and January 2008 were reviewed.
Eight cases met the criteria. Age, sex, visual acuity, and eye examination data were collected.
Results : Six cases were male and two cases were female. Age at presentation ranged from 4 to 45 years old.
Seven cases had vision of 6/60 or worse. Only one case had visual acuity 6/36. Strabismus was seen in five
cases (exotropia 4 cases and esotropia 1 case). No one had symptoms of diplopia or oscillopsia. All cases had
unilateral coarse, slow, pendular vertical oscillations occurring in the poor vision eye.
Conclusion : Monocular vertical oscillation may develop in an eye with reduced vision. It may be a common
condition but under diagnosed.
Keywords : Eye movements, Heimann-Bielschowsky phenomenon, Nystagmus, Pathologic, Vertical oscillation, Low vision
