The Oculocardiac Reflex: An Overview

The OCR, also known as the Aschner reflex or trigeminovagal reflex, results in bradycardia, and sometimes more significant arrythmias such as asystole, when pressure is applied to the globe or traction to the extra-ocular muscles. Typical manifestations occur during paediatric strabismus cases, with a reported prevalence of around 10% in such cases. Other occurrences reported in the literature include during retinopathy of prematurity examinations, and during maxillofacial trauma reconstructive cases.