In September 2017, the first author suffered a rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. This experience included a series of remarkable, sometimes unsettling visual phenomena, which included visible differences in the color vision between her two eyes during the recovery from retinal detachment, as a cataract developed, and following cataract surgery. Her right eye is now equipped with a new lens, replacing one that had yellowed from years of exposure to ultraviolet radiation, which provides a cooler view of the world than before retinal detachment, with slight distortions, and occasionally with sparkles early in the morning. In this review, the color vision changes that were experienced are quantified and detailed. While this does not represent a typical study with a hypothesis and testing of various participants, we hope that it inspires others to ask interesting questions that lead to increased consideration of the relationships between perception and visual health and that it raises awareness of the warning signs of retinal detachment.
Susan Farnand, Rajeev Ramchandran, Mark Fairchild, "Color Vision Differences Following Retinal Detachment and Subsequent Cataract Surgery" in Proc. IS&T 27th Color and Imaging Conf., 2019, pp 207 - 214, https://doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2019.63.4.040405