You’ve probably had a PERRLA eye exam during a checkup with your doctor or before an eye exam. Your doctor uses it to measure how well your pupils work. It can help point to eye diseases and conditions that can affect your brain and nervous system. The acronym “PERRLA” explains what your doctor/Nurse measures when they do the test.

“PERRLA” stands for:

Pupils, which are the dark dots in the centre of your eyes. They shrink or widen to control how much light gets into your eye. During the test, your doctor will make sure your pupils are in the right part of your eye.

Equal. Your pupils should be the same size. If they aren’t, your doctor will do more tests to find out why.

Round. Healthy human pupils are perfectly round circles.

Reactive to. This refers to how well your pupils react to the next steps.

Light. When there’s too much light, your pupils close a little to protect your vision. To test this, your doctor will shine a bright light in your eyes and watch what your pupils do. If they don’t get smaller, there might be a problem and your results will come back abnormal.

Accommodation. Accommodation is your eyes’ ability to change focus. Healthy pupils dilate when you look at something far away and shrink when you look at things that are near. If yours don’t adjust at all, your test results will show an abnormal reaction to accommodation.

❗ATTENTION❗: The information provided in this video lecture is purely educational, please follow your hospitals or organizations guidelines and policies. The information provided is also not meant to substitute the guidance and care provided by your primary care provider.