In 2016, Honey Rose, an Ipswich optometrist, was handed a two-year suspended sentence for gross negligence manslaughter for a failure to spot papilloedema. An appeal court later quashed the conviction, but the journal Nature reported an increased awareness of disc pathology, a rise in referrals from community optometrists and a spike in neuroimaging requests in the aftermath (Poostchi et al, 2018). 

“It’s certainly a condition that optometrists worry about seeing in practice,” says Daniel Hardiman-McCartney FCOptom, Clinical Adviser for the College. “I’ve only seen five or six cases in 15 years, which I suspect is broadly typical.”