Cranial Nerve Observation Paper

Upon observing my neighbor and her symptoms, I can tell that the cranial nerve that has been affected is the oculomotor nerve, or cranial nerve three. The patient is experiencing double vision, inability to raise her eyelid or a droopy eyelid, her right eye being abducted and depressed compared to the left, and a dilated pupil compared to the left. All of these symptoms point to her having lateral strabismus in her right eye, or exotropia strabismus, which means the eyes are failing to keep proper alignment and focus on the same image (American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, 2014). Her eyelid drooping, or ptosis, would be caused by the damage to cranial nerve three that innervates the levator palpebrae superioris which helps to elevate the eyelid. With her eye being depressed and abducted it shows that the innervation of her medial rectus, inferior rectus, superior rectus, and inferior oblique have been affected, which further reinforces the fact that the nerve that innervates these extraocular muscles has been damaged, or cranial nerve three (Drake, Mitchell, & Vogl, 2012). Without these muscles being in action there is nothing to oppose the pull of her lateral rectus muscle, and also no muscle to help pull the eye superior. Her double vision, or diplopia, is caused by the fact that her right eye is oriented

A dry eye is caused by damaged innervation to the lacrimal gland, which is innervated by the facial nerve, or cranial nerve seven. The facial nerve preganglionic parasympathetic fibers synapse in the pterygopalatine ganglion and the postganglionic fibers travel to the lacrimal gland to stimulate the production of tears or secretions to moisten the eye. In my neighbor’s case she is only experiencing symptoms caused from damage to the oculomotor nerve which assists in extraocular eye